Forgive Me, I'm Human

FORGIVE ME,
I'M HUMAN
by
CARL H. STEVENS, JR.
First Printing: March, 1991
Second Printing: May, 1991
Copyright 1990 by Carl Henry Stevens, Jr. All rights
reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No part
of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner
whatsoever without written permission of the publisher
except in the case of brief quotations in articles and
reviews. For information write: New Leaf Press, Inc., P.O.
Box 311, Green Forest, AR 72638.
Library of Congress Catalog Number: 90-64351
ISBN: 0-89221-192-X
Cover art by: Drew and Karen Janssen
Typesetting by: Total Type & Graphics
Berryville, AR
Contents
Introduction ............................................................... 7
1 Failure is a Fact of Life ..................... ........... .......... .. 13
2 The Nature of the Beast .......................................... 17
3 Morality ...... -..... .. . . . . . .. . . . .. . . ... .. .. ... ......... .. . . . . .. . . .. . . ... ..... 33
4 Human Weakness .................................................... 45
5 The Spiritual War . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
6 Genuine Transformation . . .. . . . ... . ... .. . ..... ... . ... ... . . .. .. .. 65
7 Human Responsibility ............................................ 79
8 Capitalizing on Failure ............................................ 93
9 The Spirit of the Church .......................................... 113
10 Beauty for Ashes ...................................................... 133
Introduction
At the signing of the Declaration of Independence,
Benjamin Franklin told the delegates to the convention,
uwe must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all
hang separately"! The task before us as believers is a great
one. We need every available hand on the plow. It is no
time for turning to the left or to the right-our focus, as the
Church, must be upon our Head, Jesus Christ. His Word
needs to be proclaimed like never before. His hymns and
praises need to be sung as loudly as they ever have been
sung if the sweet sound of His amazing grace is to reach
the ears of those who are wretched without Him. And it
must reach believers who feel wretched because of their
failure and guilt.
David wrote in Psalm 41:1, ~ ~ ' B l e s s e d is he that con-
sidereth the poor: the Lord will deliver him in time of
trouble." Poverty is more than simply a lack of money.
The Hebrew word refers to something hanging or swing-
ing like a door. Picture those who are lost without Christ.
Those who have never received Him are swinging be-
7
tween heaven and hell, hanging between an eternity of
joy and one of torment. Their destinies hinge upon what
we, as Christians, do with what we have received. Will we
gather in the poor by going forward in unity and spread-
ing the good news of Christ, or will we scatter them as we
fight and accuse each other?
Consider another kind of poverty-believers who
have fallen. Sin has impoverished them spiritually. Their
power has been diminished. We cannot turn away from
the poor and the feeble in the Church. "Therefore,
strengthen the hands that are weak and the knees that are
feeble" (Hebrews 12:12; NASB). There is a great need
today for genuine edification within the church of Jesus
Christ.
The eternal redemption we have received through
Christ's finished work on the cross is our common bond.
Regardless of our denominational preference, we have
been accepted in the Beloved by the blood of the Lamb.
The fields are ripe, ready for harvesting those in need of
compassion, reconciliation, and restoration. In the par-
able of the Good Samaritan, a man was beaten, robbed,
and left for dead. Neither the priest nor the Levite found
time to help this man in his hour of need. They did not
even want to be found on the same side of the road with
him! Maybe they were on the way to fulfill a religious rite
or make a sacrifice. '.ITo obey is better than sacrifice" (1
Sam. 15:22). Will we live to fulfill our religious norms, or
will we fulfill Christ's commission and reach down to
share God's love, mercy, and grace?
In the early 1970s, a number of young adults joined
our church. Some of them had extremely long hair and
dressed in what appeared to be rags. In spite of their
appearance, the majority of them sincerely wanted to
8
follow Jesus and learn His Word. They made mistakes.
Some found it difficult to break long -standing habits. We,
the leaders of the church, could have robbed these young
Christians of the joy of walking with Christ by imposing
man-made standards of behavior on them. But their
wounds needed to be bound, not exposed. We ministered
to them and many went on to Bible school. Several are
now full time pastors and missionaries. Through com-
passion and investment, we helped them go forward
with God. What has been the result? Many souls have
been led to Christ and multiple nations reached through
their fruitful lives. A lasting capacity for excellence came
as a result of holding up a true picture of the grace of God.
The Lord of Zephaniah 3:17 rests in His love. "'Rest"
means to stand silent and still. As Satan-the accuser of
the brethren described in Revelation 12:10-makes his
indictments, God remains immovable in His love. The sin
issue has been settled and His justice has been satisfied.
God answered the devil' s accusations once and for all at
Calvary. "They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb"
(Rev. 12:11). Christ's blood bought our positional stand-
ing in Him, and His Word supplies us with the power to
experience that standing. Jesus paid it all. Satan's chief
aim in his attack against the Church is to distract our
minds from this simple truth. If the owner of a perfectly
operational automobile believes it is broken, he won't
drive it. Christ sits at God's right hand with abundant
power; but the vehicle remains inactive because of believ-
ing a lie! This is Satan's strategy.
The Psalmist said, "My soul cleaveth unto the dust:
quicken Thou me according to Thy Word." Apart from
our position in Christ and His Word in us, we can only
respond to situations according to what we are, which is
9
dust. Instead of kicking up the dust, today is a time for
Christians to "stand still, and see the salvation of the
Lord" (Ex.14:13-14). Theworld,liketheEgyptianarmyof
old, is closing in on the Church. Let us not murmur,
complain, or fight among ourselves. His rest is glorious
(Isa. 11:10). As we come to Him with our labors and
burdens, He will give us rest. He is at the right hand of
God and we are in Him. We can serve Him with confi-
dence and power, knowing that there is not a single thing
that can separate us from that love.
-C.H.S.
10
Let others sing to the hero who wins in the
ceaseless fray,
Who, over the crushed and fallen, pursueth
his upward way;
For him let them weave the laurel, to him
be their paean sung,
Whom the kindly fates have chosen, who
are happy their loved among;
But mine be a different message, some
soul in its stress to reach;
To bind, o'er the wound of failure, the
balm of pitying speech;
To whisper: "Be up and doing, for courage
at last prevails"
I sing-who have supped with Failure,-
! sing to the man who fails."
-Alfred J. Waterhouse
11
ONE
FAILURE IS A FACT
OF LIFE
Failure is as much a part of the human experience as
breathing. Needless to say, no one is perfect. Babe Ruth,
the great home run hitter for the New York Yankees in the
1920s and 30s, holds a spot in baseball history for slam-
ming 714 balls out of the park. However, what you might
not know is that he also struck out 1,330 times. For every
glorious triumph at the plate, he had two miserable
failures.
General Douglas McArthur, fleeing the Philippines
in apparent failure, made that legendary pronounce-
ment: "I shall return!" He did return in one of the greatest
morale-boosting war efforts in the Pacific.
John Mark quit the first missionary team sent out in
the Book of Acts. But church history records that he later
became Peter's right hand man, authored one of the four
Gospels, was the first bishop of Alexandria, and died as
13
Forgive Me, I'm Human
a martyr for the faith. Failure for him was not the end, but
only the beginning.
The Bible: A History of Failures
Human history began with failure. Adam and Eve
failed to keep the one simple commandment given to
them. When the flooded world emerged from judgment,
Noah, the one man who had found grace in the eyes of the
Lord, planted a vineyard and got drunk. Abraham, the
father of our faith, was faithless when it came to his
beautiful wife. Twice he lied about his relationship with
her in order to save his own skin. He could not trust God
for the timing of the promised seed. Instead, he listened
to Sarah and fathered Ishmael by Hagar, her Egyptian
maid. David, the king after God's own heart, committed
adultery and murder following a tragic decision not to go
to battle. Peter, the pillar of the church, professed his
readiness to follow Christ even if it meant prison or death.
The very next few verses of Scripture record his failure
under pressure. Both Moses, in the Old Testament, and
Paul, in the New, were men who were responsible for
bloodshed due to their misguided attempts to serve God.
Failure is the underside of human existence, the
unlovely part that everyone wants to hide. The Bible
records the failures of these "greats" to give us a realistic
picture of man's condition and God's merciful nature.
Long before the press rallied to" tell all" by expose, God's
Word was faithful to give the whole story. The Apostle
Paul cried out in painful honesty, "in my flesh dwells no
good thing!" David, the sweet psalmist of Israel wept, "I
was shapen in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive
me." Any approach to Christianity which does not in-
clude failure is ridiculous and unscriptural. All the foun-
14
Failure is a Fact of Life
dational doctrines of faith -atonement, saving grace,
justification by faith-all presuppose human failure.
The Anatomy of a Hero
What makes a hero? What are the guts of a human
success story? James 5:17 encourages our hearts by using
Elijah as an example in prayer. He was a man" subject to
like passions as we are." Elijah was in a paranoid, de-
pressed state bordering on suicide in 1 Kings 19, yet he is
our "hero," inspiring us to believe God beyond our own
frailties. The very character flaws which surfaced when
he was in the pressure cooker of warfare make us identify
with his battles and victories. When we read that he
persevered in prayer until he saw the cloud the size of a
man's hand, we are inspired to pray until the nail-scarred
Hand becomes visible in our circumstances, too. (See 1
Kings 18:42-45)
"Like ... as we are." Glorious words! Raymond Lull,
early missionary to the Muslims, set up training centers
for Muslim evangelism and sent out evangelists. Then he
received the call to personally go. At the last minute, even
as crowds of well-wishers thronged the docks, Lull pan-
icked at the thought of Muslim torture and martyrdom.
He unloaded the ship and refused to go. Shortly thereaf-
ter, having mastered his fears, he went out on a later ship.
Lull successfully evangelized Muslims for years and was
an eager martyr for the faith at age eighty-three in Tuni-
sia. "Like ... as we are!"
Dwight L. Moody, elder statesman of the faith, had
lapses when his old temper broke out. Once, just after an
evangelistic meeting as he was urging men to give their
hearts in prayer to Christ, a man approached him and
grossly insulted him. Instantly, Mr. Moody thrust the
15
man from him, sending him reeling down a flight of
stairs. Mr. Moody immediately recovered himself and
H
"l'k ,
apologized before everyone. e was 1 e ... as we are.
St. Augustine, ex-playboy of his age, fought a con-
tinual battle against his former temptations; John Wesley
had a terrible marriage; Charles Spurgeon, a successful
pastor, smoked until shamed by a tobacco advertisement
which used his name; then he quit. They were "like ... as
we are."
Who are the real heros? The unlikely models of
perfection or the men and women who battled the flesh
and beat the odds? In the long list of faith heros of
Hebrews, chapter eleven, there are only one or two whose
faults are not recorded in earlier chapters of the Bible.
They are examples of faith, not infallibility.
16
TWO
THE NATURE OF THE
BEAST
There is so much good in the worst of us
And so much bad in the best of us
That it hardly becomes any of us
To talk about the rest of us.
1
What does it mean to be human? "I am fearfully and
wonderfully made!" the Psalmist exclaimed, echoing the
self -conscious response of every soul. "God said, let us
make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them
have dominion" (Gen.1:26). But when man' sfreevolition
was used to tum from God in Genesis, all of humanity
was plunged into the darkness of sin. Adam's original sin
condemned the entire human race.
11
Through one man
sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so
death spread to all men, because all sinned" (Rom. 5:12
NASB).
How ludicrous it is to compare or measure the
17
production of what comes out of Adam! ~ w e are all as an
unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy
rags" (Isa. 64:6). "Every man at his best state is altogether
vanity!" (Ps. 39:5). "There is none righteous, no, not one"
(Rom. 3:10). God has included all of us in Adam's un-
righteousness that He might extend His mercy to all in the
gift of Jesus Christ. It does not matter how few or how
many our transgressions have been; it all needs to be
forgiven and cleansed by Christ's payment on the cross.
" 'Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and
I forgive him? Till seven times?' Jesus answered Peter,'!
say not unto thee seven times, but until seventy times
seven!' " Jesus illustrated the principle of forgiveness
with this story:
"A king wanted to settle accounts with his servants.
As he began, a man who owed him ten thousand talents
was brought to him. Since he was not able to pay, the
master ordered that he and his wife and his children and
all that he had be sold to repay the debt. The servant fell
on his knees before him. 'Be patient with me', he begged,
'and I will pay back everything.' The servant's master
took pity on him, cancelled the debt and let him go. But,
when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow
servants who owed him a hundred denari. He grabbed
him ~ d began to choke him. 'Pay back what you owe
me!' he demanded. His fellow servant fell to his knees and
begged him, 'Be patient with me, and I will pay you back.'
But he refused. Instead, he went off and had the man
thrown into prison until he could pay the debt. When the
other servants saw what had happened, they were greatly
distressed and went and told their master everything that
had happened. Then the master called the servant in.
18
The Nature of the Beast
'You wicked servant', he said, 'I cancelled all that debt of
yours because you begged me to. Shouldn' tyou have had
mercy on your fellowservant just as I had on you?' In
anger his master turned him over to the jailers to be
tortured, until he should pay back all that he owed."
Jesus concluded the story by saying, "This is how
My heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you
forgive your brother from the heart" (Matt. 18:22-35;
NASB).
We are to forgive others as God has forgiven us. This
is not a system of works-forgive to be forgiven, but as He
forgives u ~ , we forgive others, giving grace for grace
through the Holy Spirit. The only people Jesus was ever
angry with in the Gospels were the Pharisees, because
they distorted the image of God and refused to pass out
the forgiveness they had received and had been dele-
gated to give.
There is a Pharisee within each one of us who is a
greater sinner than the person who has obviously failed.
Many years ago, a lovely Christian woman attended a
series of meetings at my church, the topic of which was
God's unconditional love. For fifteen years she had been
living with a good-for-nothing alcoholic husband. All
those years she had carried the financial and emotional
load of the family. After hearing about the unconditional
love and forgiveness of God, she went home and waited
up for her drunken husband. Realizing the bountiful
mercy that had been shown to her through Jesus Christ,
she was deeply moved with love toward him. He arrived
home at three that morning and collapsed in a drunken
stupor on the living room couch. She knelt and prayed.
When he awoke hours later, she served him coffee and
waited for him to sit up. "Forgive me for not loving you
19
these fifteen years," she said. "I have lived in reaction to
you. Will you forgive me?" He was so touched by her
change of attitude that he began attending the meetings,
too. He gave his heart to Christ and has been faithfully
serving Him now for over twenty years!
One sin, alone, dooms the sinner to an eternity in
hell; and that is Adam's sin, committed before any of us
were ever born. We have no right to withhold the forgive-
ness that has been extended to all, however many or few
their trespasses have been. God's forgiveness is all-en-
compassing and final.
If ye forgive men their trespasses, your heav-
enly Father will also forgive you: but if ye
forgive not men their trespasses, neither will
your Father forgive your trespasses (Matt. 6:14-
15).
If we refuse to give the grace we have received, our
experience will be a difficult one. We automatically come
under the law by which we evaluate others. Under the
law of sin and death, we were made sinners. As recipients
of the law of the Spirit of life in Christ, we are made
righteous. There is nothing to boast in or require of others.
No one is any good in themselves, but everyone is won-
derful in Christ!
Forgiveness magnifies the Forgiver instead of the
failure. Lewis Sperry Chafer says that no demonstration
of grace is possible unless there are objects of grace, and
there could be no objects of grace apart from the presence
and experience of sin.
2
The fall of man did not stop the
plan or purpose of God which was to create man for His
glory. Our need magnifies God's goodness which was
demonstrated on an old rugged cross. Forgiveness which
20
covers all accounts glorifies His nature of grace.
Man's Intrinsic Emptiness
Adam's sin was imputed to every human being, and
the adamic sin nature was imparted genetically to every
member of the human race. Even before a soul is con-
scious of sin, it sins. Within man's complex awareness is
the consciousness of God, conscience of what is right, and
self -consciousness nf falling short of the ideals of perfec-
tion.
To magnify the chasm between man's original state
and his experiential condition, God gave the Law. Even as
Moses was receiving the Law, the people were breaking
it. They sinned as they waited for their sin to be defined.
Before Moses had reached the bottom of Mt. Sinai with
the slabs of stone, they were riotously transgressing the
first commandment "Thou shalt have no other gods
before Me" as they danced around the golden calf.
The Law of Moses activates man's conscience which
activates the will which activates the energy of the flesh
which can only sin. The Law intensifies the self-aware-
ness and activity of sin. "For I would not have known
about coveting if the Law had not said, 'You shall not
covet.' But sin, taking opportunity through the com-
mandment, produced in me coveting of every kind; for
apart from the Law, sin is dead ... but when the command-
ment came, sin became alive, and I died" (Rom. 7:7 -9;
NASB). The apostle Paul knew that the Law was good
and right but it only made him realize how carnal and
sinful he was. He found himself in a struggle of wanting
to please God and yet being unable to.
Man, created at a point of time in innocence and
having chosen to live apart from God, became destined to
21
live forever in the hell of wasted potential. The capacity of
the subjective mind is such that the child who lies at age
three never recovers from the effects of that lie though the
conscious mind may not remember it the next day. The
soul's computer indelibly records every decision and
every event. In desperation, man turns to religion in an
effort to purge the conscience of its record of failure and
to assuage the consciousness of a dissatisfied Maker.
Knowledge of good and knowledge of evil vie within the
self-essence giving conflicting messages to the conscience,
self-consciousness, perception, logic, and volition. The
emotions become poisoned as the objective mind is over-
run by the subjective signals. The lack of conscious defi-
nition creates a condition of fear. Every phobia traces
back to this process of the fallen psyche. No psychiatrist
can take the mind back far enough to get rid of all the roots
of guilt because they originate from a pre-natal cause!
Though one may be privileged to grow up in a good
family which honors the principles of morality and is dis-
ciplined to do good, the sickness of the inner condition
cannot be eradicated. Education, counsel, and religion
can only lessen the blow of how much the individual will
reap in his fallen state. Man buries himself in his work, his
hobbies, his talents; he uses relationships, responsibili-
ties, physical opiates, and stimulants to alleviate the
oppressive reality of being a worm! He educates his mind
and trains his responses, but deeply rooted within is the
consciousness of God's verdict.
The whole head is sick, and the whole heart is
faint. From the sole of the foot even to the head
there is nothing sound in it, only bruises, welts,
and raw wounds, not pressed out or bandaged,
nor softened with oil (Isa. 1:5-6; NASB).
22
The diagnosis of a fallen nation perfectly describes
the state of man in his fallen condition. Though he may try
to do, give and be, when it is all said and done, in the hours
of darkness and quiet the heart cries out in emptiness, "'I
cannot change me!"
The dominating need to be inwardly filled drives
man to attach himself to an infinite number of objects as
this eternal capacity to receive from God becomes trans-
ferred to temporal targets which can never fully satisfy.
Because man's needs are always increasing, new objects
must be continually found and exploited. This chain of
bondage is only broken by becoming filled with the object
of our original design: God, himself. Christ identified
with our spiritual emptiness when He died in our place to
satisfy the judicial demands of a broken law. When bona
fide need becomes attached to Calvary's love, then for-
giveness, justification, communion, and fellowship fill
the human heart. The devastating effects of the fall are
neutralized and the insatiable cycle of sin and death is
broken.
Man was created to enjoy an exchanged life. Adam
(the old sin nature) holds onto his life in self-preservation
through a myriad of security systems, but Christ offers
death to the old man via the Cross to rid us of the very
source of insecurity and emptiness. The Christian must
~ e continually saved from the self -life by being constantly
filled through a faith appropriation process.
The moment the soul is not being actively filled with
God's Spirit, a spiritual vacuum is created. Just because
Christians do not commit sin, they think they are spiri-
tual. Overt sin is simply the expression of a soul that has
been living outside of vital fellowship with Christ. We
can live in the carnality of an empty mind a long time
23
before evil becomes apparent. The measure in which the
soul does not have a living relationship with Christ and
His Word through grace will be the measure that it will
need the world and natural relationships to sustain it,
though these" fillers" may not appear to be overtly sinful.
Although God is not the author of evil or the minis-
ter of sin, when a Christian lives for an extended period
of time in this condition, he may actually need a dramatic
fall to wake him up to his inwardly deprived state. The
mind so subtly reverts to that tree of knowledge which
feeds the old rationale! Everything we do has its source in
spiritual life or spiritual death. Either the head is Christ or
the head is spiritually sick. Living outside of communion
and dependence upon Christ is to be cut off from the
experience of His life. We are either living in Christ or in
our knowledge about Him. This is the difference between
a relationship and religion. Either we are experiencing
what we have been made in Christ, or what we have been
made in Adam. Morality, works, religion, and reform
seem right but leave us in the dilemma of Adam's impo-
tence. "Received ye the Spirit by the works of the Law, or
by the hearing of faith? Are ye so foolish? having begun
in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?" (Gal.
3:2-3).
One degree off from grace makes the mind spiritu-
ally sick. HFor to be carnally minded is death; but to be
spiritually minded is life and peace" (Rom. 8:6). We are
always thinking in one of these two standards: self-
righteousness or the gift of righteousness through Christ.
Holiness does not mean the eradication of sin or the
possibility of earthly perfection but, because One died,
we are to consider ourselves as dead. We are no longer to
be preoccupied with varying degrees of good and evil,
24
but with the God of eternity who has condescended to
live in our hearts!
To depart from evil means to depart from a satanic
government of thinking which began at the fall through
the knowledge of good and evil. Only faith pleases God.
We do not try to rid ourselves of what Christ has already
taken. That would be unbelief! In Adam, I always fall
because Adam is a failure; but in Christ, I can do nothing
less than triumph!
Law Strengthens Sin
The Christian lives in a paradox. He stands holy and
without blame in God's love and in his position in Christ,
but he cannot say that he has no sin. We are seated with
ChristatGod'srighthand, butwedonotseeall things put
under our feet, yet. Old habits, unresolved conflicts, and
theabilitytosinmaystillhauntourlives, butwemustnot
be drawn back into an existential struggle with the old
creation. The more we react to our state, the greater the
power sin will have over us. Paul put it this way: "I find
then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present
with me. For I delight in the law of God after the inward
man: but I see another law in my members warring
against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captiv-
ity to the law of sin which is in my members" (Rom. 7:21-
23). The strength of sin is in the Law! It is often the
legalistic preacher who falls into overt sin. The Law
strengthens the power of the flesh because that is what it
was designed to do-to magnify man's helplessness.
The poor Christian struggles within the confines of
the old nature in an honest effort to conquer it with
human goodness. This only prolongs and promotes suf-
fering. As long as we are striving in the battle between
25
good and evil, we are missing the provision of God to al-
together escape the realm of the flesh. Fighting evil keeps
the soul functioning in the natural temperament where
all the problems, wounds, personality disorders, lust
patterns, insecurities, frustrations, and pride complexes
are. These all have their origin in the old creation. Self
cannot cast out self. The oppression of living in self
produces the desire for sublimation and, as the corrup-
tion that is in the old man is progressive, the human
condition worsens. Paul stopped his struggle with sin by
reckoning on his co-crucifixion with Christ: .1/But if I am
doing the very thing I do not wish, I am no longer the one
doing it, but sin which dwells in me" (Romans 7:20;
NASB). His sin had already been judged!
Christ is THE way of thinking that always leads to
life! He imparts His nature every time we believe in His
specific promises. He warns us not to judge lest we enter
back into a former mind-set that has been judged. The law
we live by determines the process we experience.
When the believer goes back to his old nature to try
to fulfill his new role, it is like trying to put new wine in
old wineskins. The Christian can backslide to a state
worse than before he was saved because of trying to apply
new patches to the worn out garment of his flesh. There
is no resolution to the sinfulness of Adam apart from the
Cross. No counsel, no prayer, no struggle of the will
avails. Sin reigns unto death. Faith in Christ's offering is
the only escape. If we refuse our avenue of escape, we are
willfully remaining in the cycle of condemnation and
syndrome of sin from which Christ died to free us.
Willful Sin
Failing is no longer the issue because Christ took
26
care of our failures on the cross. Failing grace is now the
issue. To stay down after a failure is to fail the grace of
God. In Hebrews 10:26, willful sin refers to rejecting the
one offering made by Christ which satisfies the justice
and holiness of God. Unbelief offers other sacrifices in its
place. The effect of faith is rest. When we do not rest in the
pure Word of God on the subject of our sins, we continue
to try to appease our sense of right.
For the Hebrew Christians, this meant reinstating
the Levitical animal sacrifices. For us, it means continuing
on in self-effort and its effects of depression, discourage-
ment, guilt, fear, condemnation, judging, and anger from
which we have already been delivered. It means being
conscious of sins that have been paid for. If we sin, we
name it, forsake it, and then forget it because it has
already been dealt with at Calvary. When we do not
accept the reconciliation Christ died to provide, we con-
tinue living as God's enemies expecting His wrath. Tread-
ing the blood of the new covenant under one's feet means
not accepting its efficacy -saying that it is not enough in
itself to make s ~ pleasing to God. To reject God's grace
revealed at the Cross is to reject the only means we have
of coming into His presence.
The greatest deception in the Church today con-
cerns the grace of God. Grace depends totally on the
character and nature of the Giver, not the character and
nature of the receiver. "Looking diligently lest any man
fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness spring-
ing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled" (He b.
12:15). The soul must be intensely guarded in this one
specific area of grace. Even biblical principles must not be
elevated above grace. Every doctrine must come under
the government of grace in order to become operationally
27
effective. If we detach a particular truth from grace, we
cease to propagate the gospel. Every scriptural precept
must remain under the rule of the new covenant. The
farther we go from the gospel of grace, the less capacity
we will have to experience any of God's characteristics.
God cannot operate outside of grace towards us. When
we leave the faith race to "deal" with things, we fail the
grace that already dealt with them. The soul becomes
troubled, alienated, withdrawn, and bitter when it leaves
its grace premise. Then it defiles many as the tongue
communicates its troubles. Party spirits and taking sides
are the inevitable results of failing to magnify Christ.
When we judge, criticize, react, dictate, and legislate
to others instead of accepting Christ's shed blood as
God's answer for sin, we do despite to the Spirit of grace.
Through just one offering are we sanctified and perfected
in the eyes of God. The shedding of blood is the only
criteria for the remission of sins. To believe that a back-
slidden condition can make the saved soul lost is to
undervalue the totality of God's provision as well as to
misunderstand the very nature of man's condition. God
reserves His severest discipline for those who do not take
the one offering seriously.
Every holy command from God can be fulfilled only
by God's own life. The husband is told to love his wife
exactly as Christ loves the Church. This is impossible for
the natural man who is married to a natural woman! He
never will be able to love her with a life that had its
beginning in Adam. He will not be able to function as
sacrificial lover in his position as Christ's representa-
tional head. Eternal life is that life which originates in
Christ. It is the only life which returns back to Him. At the
Bema Seat Judgment, where believers will receive their
28
rewards, only that which had its origin in Christ's own
life will be recognized. Whatever has not gone through
identification with Christ's death and has its roots in
resurrection ground, belongs to the wood, hay, and stubble
of time-the energy of the flesh, emotional impulses, and
knowledge without application. Just as Eve was taken
out of Adam and then was brought to him, the Church
was born out of Christ and will return to Him as His bride.
Any fruit she has to present to Him will have been
derived from the life that He, himself, gave her. Anything
less wo,..tld be spiritual adultery.
Zerubbabel was to cry" grace, grace" in order for the
mountain to be removed. Why? Because it is not by might
nor by power, but by God's Spirit that we have the
victory. Shout to your failure! Shout to your sin! Shout to
guilt and the critical voices of accusation. Grace has
overcome every obstacle! The God who brought forth a
perfect Son without using Adam's life as intermediary
has wrought for himself this great salvation. He seals
every believer with His own life in a commitment to live
out the life that has been bestowed within.
"I Shall Arise"
There is a wonderful song with a chorus which
begins, "Failure isn't final with the Father." Micah, the
prophet, was honest about his sin, but he refused to stay
defeated in condemnation. "Rejoice not against me 0
mine enemy," he cried. "When I fall I shall arise!" He
knew that there was an end to darkness. Micah could not
change the fact of his fall, but he could look up. He knew
that his enemies, those who rejoiced at his failure, would
live to see him get back up again.
Jack Hyles tells the story of a possessive woman who
29
wanted her husband to promise her that he would not
remarry as her illness brought her close to death. When he
could not promise, she refused to die! She rose from her
sickbed because. she did not want another woman to
rejoice over her demise! Micah had that kind of spirit! He
knew he would make a comeback. In a world of sin,
suffering, unjust persecution, economic uncertainty, and
failures of every sort, this is the kind of confident attitude
the child of God needs to have.
A son told his mother, .ul don't want to go to church
today." "You have to go," she replied.
11
Why?" he asked.
She answered, uBecause you're forty years old and you're
the pastor!" Outward stress and inward discouragement
can make anyone want to quit!
King David and his men left the city of Ziklag
unguarded when they went off to war only to find total
destruction upon their return. Their homes burned to
ashes and their loved ones taken captive, to say that they
were tempted to be discouraged would be an understate-
ment! The entire army turned on David and wanted to
stone him. Anxiety, bitterness, and sorrow incapacitated
them all, "but David encouraged himself in the Lord, his
God." Even as heaviness was creeping into his emotions,
he began to respond to God's grace. He collected himself
by reflecting on God's promises. Using the Urim and
Thummin, which stand for the Spirit and the Word, he
received counsel from above. David did not become
introspective or reactionary but in his own way he cried
out, ul will arise!"
It is easy to think we are being chastised when we are
down. But as spectacles to men and angels, we are given
the "down" times to experience and express what we
have learned about grace. Who wants to hear our pat
30
theological answers if we have never gone through any of
the trials which we preach about? uTribulation worketh
patience and patience, experience." God allows tribula-
tions so that we can have some experiences! Job attended
ten funerals, lost all of his property, and had a marital
fracas all within a matter of days! Then when he became
physically disabled, his friends came to rebuke him! But
in that low condition, God was with him. His accusers did
not know the nature of grace, forgiveness, identification,
or restoration. We learn about God's nature when we are
down. Micah said that his enemies were in his own
household. Some in the household of faith kick the fallen
instead of helping them back up. While God seeks to heal
the wounded, they break their hearts even more. Two are
better than one only if the one still standing helps the
fallen to his feet.
As long as there is life, there is hope. Sampson fell
into sin and was shorn of his glory by the world. But even
as the three thousand mocked his disfigurement and
defeat, he was calling on the Lord for a return of his
strength and power. Sampson accomplished more in the
hour of his death than all the days of his life. He looked
like he was a victim as he stood chained to the columns,
but he was calling the shots through his prayers as the
object of God's grace. God's plan can work all things
together for good. Circumstances must not be allowed to
control the emotions or dictate how we think in times of
trouble.
God would not let His people mourn more than
thirty days for Moses. His counsel was, u Arise, go over
this Jordan." Moses was dead and they were alive, so they
were to get up and go on. Joshua was intimidated as he
compared himself with his predecessor. But God told him
31
to take courageous steps of faith with the assurance of
certain success.
Sinners become winners in Christ! We are human
and so we fail, but that is not the end of the story. Victory
is written in the back of the Book. The prodigal blew it but
he came back home to be restored. When Cain offered the
wrong sacrifice, he was told that the proper sin offering
was waiting for him right on his doorstep. Jonah was
rebellious but after rejecting his opportunity of obedi-
ence, the word of the Lord came to him a second time. In
Numbers 21, Israel sinned and was chastened, but even in
chastisement, she was given a provision to be spared. The
Father's focus is not on what we have done, but on what
Christ has done, not on what we are like, but what He is
like. Doubting Thomas could not believe that Christ had
risen, but Jesus appeared a second time just for him.
All human beings are asked to do is to gaze upon the
Son. The precious blood of Jesus Christ has been spilled
on our behalf. In heaven, this blood still cries out
forgive them; for they know not what they do!" Interced-
ing on our behalf, Christ vows to perfect all those who
belong to Him. As our High Priest, He bears our names on
his breast. We have been engraved upon the nail scarred
palms of His hands. Our answer to every accusation is the
blood of the Lamb. The Completer of the Law has de-
clared us pardoned and beckons us to reign in life through
the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness.
32
THREE
MORALITY
The Mosaic Law was fulfilled by Jesus Christ, leav-
ing the believer free to live under grace. Now what place
does the moral law have? Morality speaks of the rules,
principles, and virtues of right and wrong conduct which
preserve national entity, social norms, businesses, mar-
riages, and institutions of every sort. Without a moral set
of ethics, our world would be in ruin. The honor code
requires that we work hard, pay our bills, be faithful in re-
lationships, and respond to all rightful claims on our
lives. When morality degenerates, nations disintegrate.
Throughout history, civilization's great empires degen-
erated morally prior to being overthrown nationally.
Today, the breakdown of morality is responsible for
many of our current social and medical problems. Reli-
gion used to go hand-in-hand with education, develop-
ing the moral capacity of the mind along with its percep-
tual and logical abilities. Children's books always had a
moral, a happy or tragic ending, assuring the child of
expected consequences according to one's choices and
33
actions. The moral responsibility to help mankind and be
of use to society was intentionally inculcated in the hearts
of our young.
Morality once governed the subject matter and
manner of our newspapers. The freedom of the press to
differ, criticize, and inform was governed by journalistic
ethics upon which people relied. The public expected that
they would not be subjected to reporting which had not
been thoroughly researched, including the character and
integrity of the sources. A reporter was governed by a
genuine desire to know and make known the truth, and
the editor adequately directed his employees to that end.
A moral ethic corresponding to every freedom and
profession gives the exercise of that freedom and profes-
sion its social significance. Moral integrity kept marriages
together even when incompatible. A sense of what was
right, of what was expected, kept order in the ranks.
Morality compelled a man to provide for his wife and
family. The wife, in turn, kept the home a place of order
and pleasant interaction. This was not always the case,
but it was the accepted ideal, the established policy of
acting in regard for the welfare of the whole. Morality
kept people attending church, working, and paying off
obligations without shifting the responsibility to anyone
else.
Decency, duty, discipline: these are the words we
once associated with morality. Freedoms, being thus
attached to morality, did not give the individual the
freedom to be immoral. The blue laws were taken seri-
ously and implemented. One could go to jail for a homo-
sexual act or be fined for taking God's name in vain. All
this was so because judicial law was derived from moral
law which had its source in the Mosaic Law.
34
Morality
Morality, then, has its source in spirituality, the
social laws amo:p.g men being derived from the laws of
God. But, does being moral make a person spiritual? Very
definitely not. Morality tells me what to do, but spiritual-
ity tells me who I am. Today, morality is replacing spiri-
tuality in the pulpit. Dead fundamentalism has reduced
Christianity to a system of right and wrong, exalting
morality and denouncing immorality instead of preach-
ing the royal law of love which fulfills all moral laws and
surpasses them. C.S. Lewis humorously pointed out the
two dangers of living by a set of rules: if we fail to follow
our set routine, we are defeated; if we succeed, we have a
deceptively good conscience and feel satisfied with our-
selves even in the complete absence of real charity and
faith.
Learned Behavior
Seminars, books, cassettes, and booklets today are
teaching Christians the A,B,Cs of #Christian" living. As
my good friend, Pastor Tom Powell of Tacoma, Washing-
ton pointed out to me, this is no more than learned
behavior. Christianity must be more than a series of
f/how-tos!" Bible doctrine is informative, but it cannot be
appropriated without the Holy Spirit. Many of the cele-
brated authors and speakers who promote their packages
and programs leave a living God completely out of the
picture! Their forty-five points of how to be spiritual, how
to have a good marriage, and how to raise the children,
~ e based upon analyzing and changing natural behav-
Ior.
People try to take their evil and make it good so they
can feel better about themselves. Having a better self-
image becomes the business of their lives. But anything
35
that does not proceed out of God's goodness falls short of
His glory. Knowledge separated from God's life, whether
good or evil, is forbidden fruit. We regret our evil doings
of the past, forgetting that the good which was devoid of
Christ's life was just as evil! True Christian behavior is
performed by the life of Christ in us.
As the volition chooses to receive and respond in
obedience to His life, Christ is magnified, not self-right-
eousness. Anything short of this is merely behavior
modification. Men learn: "'Husbands, do this." Women
hear: do this." He learns to hold her hand and she
tries harder to submit to him, but the marriage is not
transformed. Why don't the learned behavioral patterns
last? Because neither of them have learned to relate to
God! The truth preached in life-giving power gives Chris-
tians the ability to love each other without always having
to revert back to the letter to enforce correct responses.
Morality, family harmony, and effective lifestyles are
manifestations of the work of the Spirit.
The information Jesus gave us was meant to be
appropriated in the Spirit to become LIFE. Job said, HFor
he performeth the thing that is appointed for me" (Job
23:14). In the New Testament, Paul said, HFaithful is He
that calleth you, who will also do it" (1 Thess. 5:24).
Christian behavior is not a formula or a code of ethics, but
Christ performing what He asks of us. It is a divine way,
not a human standard.
Claiming things in Christ's name can be yet another
form of learned behavior. A contrived faith formula rules
out sovereignty. Any system in which we can function
without the intervening presence of God is simply hu-
man performance in Jesus' name. Failing these superfi-
cially-imposed behavior programs leaves the Christian
36
Morality
with undefined guilt.
Children need enforced discipline and to learn how
to behave, but that cannot substitute for a vital relation-
ship with God when they come of age. It is not that there
is anything wrong with a program, but there is no life in
it, by itself. The knowledge of the truth is not enough. We
need divine dynamics!
Pharisaism
Knowledge of what is supposed to be done leaves
the soul powerless to do it, and sometimes not even
desirous of having it done. Spiritual light is the power
behind moral light. When Jesus came to earth, He found
that the religious representation had no relationship with
heaven. Human standards and traditions had taken the
focus off of God and had put it on men. They had ceased
to look for a messiah who would come and save them
from their sins because their morality deceived them into
thinkingtheydidnothaveany!Sarcastically,Jesussaid to
them, "I did not come to call the righteous" (Mark 2:17).
By living up to their own set of rules and decorum with
self-satisfied smugness, they missed the whole point of
man's existence. Jesus called them whited tombstones-
clean on the outside, but filled with death on the inside.
Morality can be a great counterfeit for spirituality.
Being able to keep a standard without God's life produces
self-righteousness which compares and condemns oth-
ers. HI thank thee that I am not as other men are, extortion-
ers, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican." Thou-
sands of Christians across our nation are congratulating
themselves with precisely this sentiment. There is just
one problem: the Pharisee who said this in Luke 18:11 was
talking to himself. He left his place of worship never
37
having contacted God. The publican, whom he had con-
demned, wept in acute awareness of his sin and begged
God for mercy. It was he who went out justified, having
bona fide peace with God.
Who are the upright? The self-righteous ministers
who would never dream of falling like their unfortunate
"brothers," or those who have fallen and have repented
and who are depending upon Christ's life daily not to do
it again? "Judge not lest ye be judged!" (Matt. 22:13). It
seems that whenever I read or hear about "so-and-so"
condemning another preacher or ministry, it is just a
matter of time before I hear of the fall of" so-and-so!" The
Pharisee lied when he said that he was not as other men.
If we say we have no sin, we make God a liar who says that
all have sinned. "There hath no temptation taken you but
such as is common to man" (1 Cor. 10:13).
The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman
taken in the very act of adultery and set her in the midst
of the crowd. Misguided morality always exposes the
guilty party in front of everybody. They were just waiting
to accuse Christ either of being soft on sin or of being
overly authoritative by taking the life of another in His
own hands.
Jesus said nothing, but as His finger wrote on the
ground, the probing finger of the Holy Spirit was stirring
up the mud in their own conscience. None of them were
righteous enough to cast the first stone. They left one by
one,leaving the guilty party, as it always should be, alone
before God.
After Christ forgave her, giving her new power to go
and sin no more, His eyes canvassed the crowd. "I am the
Light of the world" He said. The Pharisees had been
guiding the people by their man-made standards of right-
38
Morality
eousness as the blind leading the blind. Now Jesus stood
before them. "He that followeth Me shall not walk in
darkness, but shall have the light of life" (John 8:12). We
do not have to settle for morality when we have Jesus!
Moral light is not the ultimate light. Moral light can point
out failures, but only spiritual light can forgive and
restore and empower us not to fail.
What was it about Jesus that angered the Pharisees
so? It was the manifestation of His Father's compassion
toward the masses and His indictment against relative
righteousness. Morality is naturally very comforting
because there is always someone who is worse than you
are! The disconcerting thing about grace is its claim that
we are all in need of it. In John 9, Jesus healed the blind
man but He could not heal the Pharisees. If Are we blind,
too?" they asked Him. Jesus answered, "If you were
blind, you would not be guilty of sin; but now that you
claim you can see, your guilt remains." Guilt remains for
those who declare they have none.
Jesus told His. disciples, "You are light of the world"
and then proceeded to dissect the guts of the Law. Mur-
der was reduced to its root cause of anger; sacrifice was
declared useless if one was not reconciled to a brother;
adultery was identified as being the very first thought or
look. No wonder not one of the onlookers could pick up
a stone against the one caught in an overt act! Morality in
its purest sense is loving exactly the way God loves. "Be
ye perfect," Jesus said, .... as your heavenly Father is per-
fect."
The human heart is like the chamber of imagery
described in Ezekiel 8:12. Outwardly the temple may
seem in order but underground every form of creeping
thing, abominable beast, and idol are flashed upon the
39
screen of its walls. Even the ancients worshipped there-
the Sanhedrin called to represent the holiness of God.
Pharisaism prides itself on tithing down to the minutest
grains of mint and cumin but overlooks the weightier
matters of the heart. A true understanding of the moral
law brings the best man to his knees crying, "Lord, have
mercy on me a sinner!" We not only have broken the
Mosaic Law against God, but we have fallen short of the
moral law of what we owe our brother.
The Christian witness must go beyond the light of
conscience which tells us, usomeone ought to pay."
Someone has paid-Jesus Christ. Going beyond a human
interpretation of morality, spiritual life picks up the fallen
even if it is seven times in a day. This greater light does not
produce lawlessness, carelessness, or sin but provides
realistic victory over sin because of its own pure life
transforming the soul.
Ministers of Righteousness
"Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.
Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be trans-
formed as the ministers of righteousness" (2 Cor. 11:14-
15). Many men (and today we would have to add, women!)
with clerical collars do not have pastors' hearts. They
have not come in response to Christ's call to feed His
lambs, but they are hirelings, treating their vocation as a
business and other churches as the competition. Matthew
23:5-7 perfectly describes these self-made clergy: uBut all
their works they do for to be seen of men: they make
broad their phylacteries, and enlarge the borders of their
garments, and love the uppermost rooms at feasts, and
the chief seats on the synagogues, and greetings in the
markets, and to be called of men, Rabbi, Rabbi." These
40
Morality
ministers derive identity from their office, not from God.
Religious lust and ego promotion motivates their service.
The Pharisees harassed Jesus because He was a
threat to success. When they saw the response of the
masses, they said "We'd better do something before we
lose our congregations!" (paraphrase of John 12:19). This
is the base motive behind the majority of ecclesiastical
judging today. It has been said, "Love looks through a
telescope; envy, through a microscope!" The smart poli-
tician knows how to keep envy out of his voice when he
accuses his opponent of fooling the public! Behind much
of the indignant cries against the men of God who have
failed is the serpent of jealousy. The larger a man's
following, the more the competition will demand "jus-
tice" if he falls. It is amazing why denominations will get
together to agree about who they disagree with! That is
what happened with the Sadducees and the Pharisees.
They never saw eye to eye except when it came to cruci-
fying their mutual Competitor!
Malcolm X was killed by members of the Nation of
Islam, a rival Moslem group. Christian denominations do
not stoop so low. They are content to settle for character
assassination. The frightening indictment the apostle Paul
made concerning ministers of righteousness was that
their "ministry" came from the pit of hell! What were
their satanic tactics? Their primary goal was to discredit
the apostle Paul. They wanted the Corinthian congrega-
tion for themselves so they subtly began to win the people
over to themselves by vilifying him. That is why Paul had
to write to defend his record and character before the
whole church. These men made Paul's person the issue.
In order to establish themselves as the genuine article,
they first had to destroy Paul's standing in Corinth. They
41
had a hidden agenda. Like serpents, they slithered in
making personality, not doctrine, the issue. Instead of
keeping their eyes fixed upon Christ as Paul had taught
them, the Corinthians, like Eve, entertained their sly
innuendos.
These false apostles were trafficking religion. They
robbed believers of their faith while operating under the
guise of credentialed respectability. The religious struc-
ture of Paul's time was always the source of his greatest
persecution. In Acts 13, they let him speak in their syna-
gogue until they saw how many came out to hear him!
Then, they could not rest until they had stirred up the
devout women and the chief men of the city to expel him
from their coasts. In Acts 14, they spread gossip about
him among the Gentiles until a sizable crowd wanted to
kill him. Religion, government, and public opinion fi-
nally ganged up together to end his life.
The Bible says that we wrestle not against flesh and
blood, but against spiritual powers and principalities.
This should make us think twice before we listen to
indictments made against men of faith. In wartime, one
does not turn on a soldier who has gone down but rather
rescues him because it was done by enemy fire. In Reve-
lation 12:10, the devil is called "the accuser of the breth-
ren." In James 3:6, the gossiping tongue is said to be "set
on fire by hell." If ministers are truly concerned about
their congregations, instead of stooping to methods which
would spiritually disqualify them from the clergy, they
should concentrate on the quality of life offered from
t h ~ i r own pulpits. If the congregation is well-fed, they
will not look for greener pastures! Preaching the truth
will do more than religious crusading.
David sat on the throne of judgment seething with
42
Morality
righteous indignation when he heard of the rich herds-
man who had greedily stolen ~ d killed a poor shep-
herd's only lamb. But Nathan pointed the finger at him
and said, .... Thou art the man!" He was so ready to con-
demn one whose life perfectly mirrored his own! Judah
angrily called for Tamar, his widowed, pregnant daugh-
ter-in-law, to be brought to him to be burned for her
whoredom. She came bearing the proof of the blame,
saying, "Discern, I pray thee, whose are these, the signet,
the bracelets, and staff." They were Judah's own! By not
wedding her to the next son as he had promised, he had
driven her to disguise herself and play the harlot. He,
himself, had fathered the child! His secret sin was ex-
posed when he set himself up as judge.
You can advertise your virtues,
You can self-achievement laud,
You can load yourself with riches,
But you can't fool God!
-G. Kleiser
43
FOUR
HUMAN WEAKNESS
God had a purpose for creating man lower than the
angels and then allowing him to fall. He permitted Satan
to infiltrate the Garden of Eden and to bring man under
the power of death. God's purpose was to glorify himself
by means of man's frailty! His character of grace is best
revealed to men and to angels through the medium of
weakness.
Before humans were ever created, Lucifer found
fault with God. In response to Satan's charges, God chose
what He knew would become a fallen race to manifest His
nature of love in the deepest way. The serpent's first
charge against God to Eve was that He was withholding
something good from her. Satan always tries to deny the
goodness of God. But God's plan is to reveal the goodness
of His character. Human failure is not an obstacle to the
revelation of the manifold grace of God, but its very
means! Grace finds its ultimate expression by going out to
the worst. In Heaven, the presence of the bride of Christ,
the Church, will magnify God's grace for all eternity
45
because none of us will deserve to be there! Yes, God
commended His own love when He died for sinners.
Once under the government of grace, we glorify
God by continually receiving what we do not deserve.
Grace gives us a life outside of our own to experience
power beyond our natural limitations and express fruits
beyond our natural production. Our eternal purpose in
the devil' s world is to reveal the character of God's
goodness in the midst of our own inadequacy. The apostle
Paul prayed that our eyes would be opened to this mighty
purpose and to the power which comes from Christ.
We are testimonies of God's endless love. Our posi-
tion in grace will testify of God's perfect justice at the last
judgment, making it obvious that the demons and the lost
had to reject grace in order to go to hell. Sin will not send
them there, but their own rejection of the unlimited
Atonement and the Person of love. They could have
received the free gift extended to all. There will be weep-
ing and gnashing of teeth, for everyone in hell will have
rejected the free gift.
The Power of Grace
Grace is our teacher (Titus 2:12). We do not need a
multitude of laws and rules if we are taking advantage of
the access to God which grace has given us. Grace teaches
us to deny initiations from Satan's kingdom. Like a mother
nourishing her child, the Spirit nourishes us with the milk
of God's Word as we rest in the arms of the Son. His
gentleness makes us great as He teaches us to appropri-
ate the power which He has made available to us. He
understands our genetics, our upbringing, the forces in
our environment, and the opposition against us as He
patiently teaches us how to have the victory in Him.
46
Human Weakness
The church of Ephesus in Revelation 2:1-5 was up-
right morally but not pure spiritually because of having
left her grace premise. "Herein is love, not that we loved
God, butthatHeloved us" (1John4:10). Though Ephesus
did many wonderful works, she had left her first love-
her consciousness of God's love for her as her motive for
living. Our works do not glorify God if they are not done
in response to and complete dependence upon His life in
us. The Spirit of God calls, "Come away, My love" -out
from denominational camps, possessive relationships,
personality syndromes, and external demands-into a
living relationship of dependence upon Him, alone.
When Adam and Eve fell, they became separated
from the experience of who God was. They entered into
a works program, sewing fig leaves to cover up their
inadequacy. Redemption has brought us back into right
relationship with God so that we can worship Him for
who He really is and let Him be our life. Mental health is
the state of operating in the consciousness of the love of
God. "For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of
power, and of love, and of a sound mind" (2 Tim. 1:7).
When we are securely established in the love of God as the
foundation of our identity and relationship with Him, we
do not need the security system of a set of rules to
maintain our acceptance.
God does not give us strength to remain the same,
but He progressively weakens us so that we will accept
our co-crucifixion and resurrection in Christ. Severe trials
are appointed to individuals, families, churches, and na-
tions as God tests the quality of the internal foundation.
Every disciple in the garden of Gethsemane forsook Jesus
in their hour of testing. He had chosen them because they
were weak. They had to be confronted with that weak-
47
ness and be brought to the end of themselves before they
could be used.
In Genesis 32, Jacob wrestled the angel through the
night. God waited until he had spent all of his natural
strength and could only cleave to the angel. Leaning on
Him in utter exhaustion, Jacob received the blessing. The
apostle Paul wrestled with a personal problem which left
him in a weakened state. When he besought the Lord to
remove it, God's answer was: "My grace is sufficient for
thee: for My strength is made perfect in weakness" (2 Cor.
12:9). Paul learned to glory in his infirmities which made
him depend on God's power. His release came when he
realized uwhen I am weak, then am I strong." We build
walls to retain what little strength we have instead of
relying on the pure grace of God. Jacob, weaned of his
manipulating ways, was the strongest when the weakest.
At the last-weak, blind, and dying-he had a super-
natural blessing to give.
We need to stop resisting the weakening process!
Natural strength must be uprooted before we can be
established in grace. Will we prop up old Adam, or will
we let him die and enjoy resurrection? Being uprooted is
a painful process because the old "I" hangs on to the only
identity it has ever known.
The Identity Crisis
Crisis is when the bottom of our self-support sys-
tems is kicked out from under us. Crisis is the unveiling
of our weakness, and can often come in the form of
failure. Failure can be the most important event and
blessing in disguise for the believer. The greatest ingredi-
ent for growth is need! The Lord has a program which
allows us to fail. The more self-righteous we are, the
48
Human Weakness
greater that fall will be! Failure produces need which
leads to hunger which drives us to Christ. Miles J. Stan-
ford writes,
11
Our personal, heart-breaking failure in every
phase of our Christian life is our Father's preparation for
His success on our behalf." What Stanford calls u negative
processing" brings us into utter reliance on the positive
promises of God. As he observes, "We all began in sheer
grace and we must continue and arrive on the same
basis."
1
The lessons we learned at our spiritual birth have
to be learned repeatedly in spiritual growth and service.
The true value of something is not known until it is
needed and wanted. Peter needed to fail so that he could
understand those who fail. He needed failure to make
him hungry for the power of God. He needed failure to
lose confidence in himself. He needed failure to become
hungry not to fail. "Lovest thou Me?" Jesus asked. Failure
reduced him to this basic question. He had to be reduced
so that God could lead him in his future ministry without
the interference of self-interest or an inflated sense of self-
importance. He had to learn how to be carried by the
Lord. Out of the crisis of failure came capacity, maturity,
experience, comfort, wisdom, knowledge, and oneness
with Christ.
Simon the Pharisee judged the repentant harlot who
washed Christ's feet with her tears. But the one who had
been forgiven the most loved the most. Her failure led to
hunger. Her hunger led her to Christ. Great was her
failure and great was her faith. Being stripped and left in
personal bankruptcy leads to healing and restoration as
we experience the depravity of self and the true value of
humility, grace, and Christ's life within.
Abraham's failure with Hagar was part of the grow-
ing process which led him to his faith on Mt. Moriah with
49
Isaac. Paul, the H chief of sinners," became the chief apostle
who wrote the bulk of the New Testament. Humbled by
his violent acts against Christ and the Church, he became
an effective servant who fed the flock. Every leader must
know what it is to be a lamb carried by the Chief Shep-
herd. The inner experience of grace produces an interac-
tion of love. The desire to be like Christ grows out of the
crisis which causes disillusionment with self.
If crisis does not smash the self-righteous complex
that has developed over the years to defend and preserve
self, the Christian carries a spiritual disease without even
knowing it. Absalom is a perfect example of this. For
years he harbored a grudge against his father, David, for
not dealing with his brother Amnon' s crime of rape
against his sister. Taking justice into his own hands and
killing Amnon did not satisfy Absalom's reactionary
drive. The virus of self -deception is progressively de-
structive. His contagion spread until it became conspira-
torial. He enticed the people to follow him and then
finally went to war against his father. His self-righteous
complex destroyed his own potential. He refused to be
weakened and humbled, thus in the end he was killed as
a victim of the battle his own reaction set into motion.
Emotional Reaction in Crisis
Crisis brings out a panoply of paranoias in the
natural, adamic man. We may think people dislike us or
are talking about us because past, unresolved guilt is
being projected toward the people in our present circum-
stances. Grandiose paranoia causes some to think they
are geniuses or prophets or have some other highly-
elevated calling. Jealous paranoia drives some to be over-
protective of what and who ubelongs" to them. Erotic
50
Human Weakness
paranoia sends others into the euphoric "sense" of who
they are going to marry or into an overpowering attrac-
tion to another individual. Desire and need form a pow-
erful, subjective voice that seems to be God. Others expe-
rience projected paranoia, becoming angry to escape an
overwhelming sense of self-condemnation. Strong, un-
conscious feelings of inadequacy hidden in the subjective
mind surface in crisis, perverting themselves in an amaz-
ing array of self-defense mechanisms. Projections and
distortions protect the soul from confronting the inner
conflict which promises so much pain. Repression erupts
in reaction as the pan finally boils over.
When this happens, the sympathy and protection of
others is needed. While in this state of hypersensitivity
and emotional spasm, a person requires an atmosphere of
love and understanding in order to be free to express the
dominating hurts, needs, and questions. Communication
without fear or insecurity is vital for honest growth. In an
environment of unconditional acceptance, the conscious
mind can sort through the projections erupting from the
involuntary mind. God says, "Counsel is Mine, and sound
wisdom: I am understanding: I have strength" (Prov.
8:14).
Though the soul seeks to escape this unmasking of
its inherent weakness, facing our nothingness is the best
thing that can ever happen to us. In the light, God replaces
the hurt and emptiness with His Word and Spirit. The
Comforter covers us in the heights of our depths. Failure
is only lasting when we do not tum to God in our low
points. Elijah became self-destructive in the depths of his
depression but he ran to the mount and found peace
through the still, small voice of God as he poured his heart
out to Him. The promises became real as he found the
51
God of the valleys.
If the prominent Christian figures who failed in
recent years had known the God of the valley and the
unconditional love of the body of Christ, they would have
found help for their problems before those problems
destroyed them. All too often, indictment and rejection
await the failing Christian so that he never dares to be
honest with himself or others. Leaders are left with no
place to go. They have a right to be healed and restored
just like everybody else. It is a family matter that should
be handled within the church and never exposed to the
secular world.
52
FIVE
THE SPIRITUAL WAR
Maybe you will remember this story: In the late
1970s a Japanese soldier was found in the jungle of a
Pacific island. For almost thirty years this man thought
World War II was still being fought. Consequently, those
who found him had a difficult time persuading him to
usurrender!" He did not know the war was over. Many
people do not know that the spiritual war is over. Some
never even knew there was one was going on!
The arena in which this war began, perhaps millions
of years ago, was in the spiritual world. It had its roots in
an internal rebellion. Lucifer, H son of the morning," the
anointed cherub of God, turned against God. uFor thou
hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will
exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will also sit upon
the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I
will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like
the most High" (Isa. 14:12-14). Lucifer was not content
with his high rank among the angels. He wanted to be
over all, including God. The ensuing power struggle
53
between the two kingdoms which involved the angels
who sided with Lucifer and those who remained true to
God was very much to affect planet Earth.
It was after the war in the heavenlies had begun that
God created Adam's race. The serpent in the Garden of
Eden was used to beguile Eve with the poison of pride.
She was promised to be like God if she disobeyed God.
This was a crucial stage in the war. If by her free will she
rejected the serpent's initiations, Lucifer ("that old ser-
pent called the devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the
whole world" Rev. 12:9) would have no means of access
to the human race. But if she submitted to the temptation
with Adam's acquiescence, the devil would become their
head and they would unwittingly be joined to his forces.
A negative choice was made and Satan, fallen Luci-
fer, assumed headship of fallen humanity. Adam and Eve
repented of their choice and were forgiven as individuals,
but they could not buy back the territory they had given
to the enemy. They could not retrieve the title deed which
they had sold by their disobedience. This accounts for the
titles of rulership which the Bible attributes to Satan:" god
of this world" (2 Cor. 4:4),"prince of the power of the air"
(Eph. 2:2), and "spiritual wickedness in high places"
(Eph.6:12). Beingunderthedevilinrankandpower,man
could not rectify the situation.
But right in the midst of the original defeat, God
foretold the means of Satan's future demise: "I will put
enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy
seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shall
bruise his heel!" The snake's low position and man's
dominion over him was to be a picture of an ultimate
doom: God would send the Messiah, born of a woman, to
crush the spiritual serpent's head. Satan bruised Christ's
54
The Spiritual War
heel at the Cross, but the devil' s right of headship over
man was smashed forever. This was Christ's purpose in
coming to die. When He spoke of the Cross in Matthew
16, his" friend" Peter tried to talk Him out of it. Instead of
being comforted by Peter's words, Jesus replied: "Get
thee behind Me, Satan!" Just earlier, Peter had been used
as God's mouthpiece proclaiming Christ's heavenly
Sonship. Now, moments later, he was used as an instru-
ment of Satan in an attempt to dissuade Jesus from His
purpose.
War is a bloody, ugly enterprise. Many times the
demonic forces tried to kill Jesus through the Pharisees.
Jesus told them: uy e are of your father the devil, and the
lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from
the beginning" (John 8:44). But they accused Jesus of
being of the devil and took up stones to kill Him. Again,
in John 10, they took up stones to kill Him but, again, He
escaped out of their hands. The last months of His minis-
try, the disciples lived in constant fear for His life. The eve
before the day of the final battle, Jesus was in the Garden
of Gethsemane. His right-hand men were sleeping at
their posts under a supernatural oppression as the Son of
Man faced Satan's last attempts to murder Him before
reaching the Cross. He cried out to the Father three times,
"'let this cup pass from Me!" Was it fear of death? I think
not. In John 12, He had already faced that issue and said,
i'/What shall I say? Father save me from this hour: But for
this cause came I unto this hour." Jesus was grappling in
spiritual hand-to-hand combat an onslaught of the de-
monic host trying to take His life. An angel was sent from
heaven to strengthen Him. Blood dropped from His
pores, so close did the struggle come to death. At the last,
He prevailed. He then woke His disciples and went to
55
meet Judas Iscariot who was leading the temple guards to
Him. Jesus told them,# this is your hour and the power of
darkness."
The Pharisees ultimately achieved their murderous
ends, not realizing that in doing so, they were fulfilling
the perfect will of God. Peter would declare in the first
sermon of Pentecost, ""Him, being delivered by the deter-
minate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken,
and by wicked hands have crucified and slain" (Acts
2:23). It was all according to the battle plan. Hanging on
the Cross, having given His last orders which included a
pardon to the thief beside Him, Jesus was forsaken by the
Father as He identified with all of man's sins going back
to the first cause of Adam. As He cried out: "It is fin-
ished!", His heel was bruised and Satan's headship was
crushed.
Christ's Victory
Christ when He died
Deceived the cross,
And on Death' s side
Threw all the loss:
The captive world awak' d and found
The prisoners loose, the jailer bound.
0 dear and sweet dispute
'Twixt Death' s and Love's far different
fruit,
Different as far
As antidote and poisons are:
By the first fatal Tree
Both life and liberty
Were sold and slain,
By this they both look up, and live again.
56
The Spiritual War
0 strange and mysterious strife
Of open death and hidden life:
When on the cross my King did bleed,
Life seemed to die, Death died indeed.
-Richard Crashaw
1
On the third day, Christ rose from the grave, having
proclaimed His triumph to the underworld, and took His
blood to heaven as proof of the victorious fulfillment of
God's requirements for redemption. The Levitical offer-
ings foreshadowed this great event.
11
But when Christ
appeared as a high priest of the good things to come, He
entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle,
not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation;
and not through the blood of goats and calves, but through
His own blood. He entered the holy place once for all,
having obtained eternal redemption" (Heb. 9:11-12;
NASB). By clearing man's name of the original sin, Christ
reclaimed Satan's stronghold on earth.
Ephesians 4:8 describes the success and supremacy
of Christ's ascension: "When He ascended up on high, He
led captivity captive." Colossians 2:15 says, "having
spoiled principalities and powers, He made a shew of
them openly, triumphing over them in it." Because the
nature of man's fall was spiritual, first, but included the
biological repercussions of physical sickness and death,
before we could experience any of the earthly benefits of
restoration to God, Christ had to accomplish these things
in the heavenlies. That is why the Bible says that we are
blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places;
that we have been delivered from the invisible power of
darkness and spiritually translated into the kingdom of
God's dear Son. Tactically, positional victory had to be
won in heaven before experiential reconciliation on earth
57
could be received. That is why our salvation is not condi-
tioned by our state. It is" an inheritance incorruptible, and
undefiled and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven"
(1 Pet. 1:4). Being temporarily backslidden in time cannot
touch what has been purchased and imputed to our
account forever in heaven. It was a transaction made by
God, Himself, in agreement with His own terms.
The Apostle Paul's mission was to make all men see
this victory .u which He wrought in Christ, when He raised
Him from the dead, and set Him at His own right hand in
the heavenly places, far above all principality and power,
and might, and dominion, and every name that is named,
not only in this world, but also in that which is to come:
and hath put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be
the head over all things to the church, which is His body,
thefullnessofHim thatfillethallinall" (Eph.1:20-23,3:8-
9). In ascending, Christ gave His Church -all who would
believe that He was the Christ, the Son of the Living
God -an exalted position over the devil. In that position,
she has delegated authority to bind and release on earth
all issues which have heavenly sources."
How the Church uses or abuses her authority deter-
mines much of what happens in world affairs. The Church
has a definite identity before the invisible forces and a
sacred mission to fulfill. Many "captives" are hiding out,
just like the Japanese man, who do not know that the war
is over and who the Victor is. If the devil can keep these
poor ignorants in the dark, or better yet, cause the victo-
rious opposition to oppose each other, his defeat will not
seem so final. Our vanquished foe continues to stalk the
planet like a lion "seeking whom he may devour" until
that conclusive hour when Christ returns to claim the
territory rightfully His. Until we see the fulfillment of
58
The Spiritual War
Ephesians 1:14, the crowning "'redemption of the pur-
chased possession,'' our responsibility is to maintain the
freedom Christ died to provide and herald its proclama-
tion to all who have not heard.
Project: Alienation
Having lost the battle to alienate God from men,
Satan wants to alienate men from God and from each
other. If he can convince the captives that they are too
sinful to be saved, and that the messenger is too sinful to
be trusted, no one will respond to the news of the great
emancipation. Failure is magnified by the powers of
darkness, whether they be our own failures or the fall of
others, so that Christ's victory will be overshadowed. In
light of this ultimate satanic purpose, doctrinal Chris-
tians are wary about receiving accusations against other
Christians. Jesus gives them good news to spread. Any-
one spreading bad news is not of the same Spirit.
Unfortunately, this is what happens: the world
spreads a story about a Bible-believing church. Another
Bible-believing church hears the story and believes it. In
order to protect the congregation from the supposed bad
influence of the first church, the second church tells all of
its membership. The second church may have "good"
motives, but is sadly ignorant of satanic warfare. Diabolos
means slanderer. This is the "liar from the beginning"
that Jesus was so angry about. Pious Pharisees served the
devil' s cause by spreading his accusations, criticisms,
and innuendos. That is why the apostles continually
warned their flocks against gossip. "Speak not evil one of
another, brethren" (James 4:11); "Against an elder, re-
ceive not an accusation, but before two or three wit-
nesses" (1 Tim. 5:19); "Let no corrupt communication
59
proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the
use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the
hearers" (Eph. 4:29); ,..He that saith he is in the light, and
hateth his brother, is in darkness" (1 John 2:9). A frus-
trated, defeated serpent wants to hurt God by hurting
those who belong to Him. Discord hurts the One he can
never be like. It only takes a little leaven of malice for
Satan to infiltrate God's work.
Joseph said to his brothers after they had miserably
failed him, "Fear not: for am I in the place of God?" Satan,
the usurper, would like us to assume a role of judgment
not rightfully ours, which belongs only to God. We have
every right to diligently search the doctrine and the fruit
of a church we might be considering joining. But anything
further than that enters into the system of evil. The
Christian's mind is to be occupied with things which are
true, honest, just, pure, lovely, and of good report. ulf
there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on
these things" (Phil. 4:8). It is better to think too positively
than to risk being infected mentally and emotionally by
negativity which has its source in another kingdom. The
Lord Jesus' Spirit is a Lamb's Spirit. He is our supreme
example of meekness. As we apron ourselves with His
humility, we protect ourselves from the master of pride.
Walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are
called, with all lowliness and meekness, with
longsuffering, forbearing one another in love
(Eph. 4:1-2).
Religion
Those who profess the name of Christ are capable of
counteracting His purposes. Jesus said to self-professed
60
The Spiritual War
Bible scholars," Go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will
have mercy, and not sacrifice" (Matt. 9:13). The Pharisees
had taken it upon themselves, as the H experts," to pro-
nounce judgment in the place of the most High. Jesus says
to the religious world, "go and learn"! Go back to the
Book which you profess to represent and read Hosea 6:6,
Isaiah 49:13, and Micah 6:8, you interpreters of the Law!
Go back to the prophets which you claim to embrace.
Search the Scriptures to find the One whom you have
overlooked! Ceremony means nothing without mercy.
Christ did not come to call the righteous, but sinners to
repentance!
This Christ has called His ministers to administer
forgiveness. "Be ye kind to one another, tenderhearted,
forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath
forgiven you" (Eph. 4:32). By this foot-washing love,
Jesus said we would be known as His disciples. We are
called, not only to give intellectual and verbal assent to
the death, burial and resurrection, but to deeply identify
with the inward ills and outward effects of the troubles
and sufferings, the sins and the failures of mankind.
The Pharisees were shocked to find the Son of God
eating with the disreputables, but Jesus asked, "Where
else should I be?" It is the sick who are in need of the
physician. When Christ saw the needs of the multitude,
He was moved with compassion. Feeding the hungry,
healing the sick, forgiving the fallen, encouraging the
poor-this was His Father's business. "Have mercy on
me, 0 Lord, thou Son of David" (Matt. 15:22). Even the
Gentiles found mercy at the hands of this Jewish Messiah.
The Syrophenecian woman sought the crumbs which
had fallen from the children's table. Not only did the big
needs move Jesus, but every need; not just the crisis, but
61
also the details of life.
Dead religion is abstract and hostile. Insidious in its
harmfulness, it burdens man, misrepresenting God to
those searching for the truth. Christ saw men and women
as helpless sheep without a shepherd, driven by those
who did not care for their souls. He was angry that they
had been mistreated and misinformed. See Jesus address-
ing the woman who had been excommunicated from the
temple and ostracized from society: He calls e r ~ ~ daugh-
ter" (Matt. 9:22; NASB). The name penetrates the hearing
heart. She was accepted in the Beloved, made a member
of the heavenly family by faith.
To the one refuge she had flown,
The Godhead's burning flame!
Of all earth's women she alone
Hears there the tenderest name.
"Daughter" He said, ~ ' b e of good cheer;
Thy faith hath made thee whole":
With plenteous love, not healing mere
He comforteth her soul.
-George McDonald
2
Christ calls us by name. He numbers every hair,
bottles every tear, records every step because we are the
objects of His love. Christ gazed over Jerusalem and
wept. He saw those created in God's image in a fallen
state of depravity.
Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord
pitieth them that fear Him. For He knoweth our
frame; He remembereth that we are dust (Psalm
103:13-14).
62
The Spiritual War
Christ needs His church to be filled with His Spirit in
the midst of men's needs. From place to place, person to
person, Christ was moved with compassion. His meat
was to see men and women come to the saving knowl-
edge of Who He really was. His kind of love heals the
inside and corrects the outside. Those who bear His name
are to be sons of mercy, moved by the same Spirit which
moved Him.
We are not in God's place of judgment, but in Christ's
stead as ambassadors of reconciliation. As stewards of
grace in the midst of a satanic siege, we have to remember
to stay on the winning side. The One we serve died to
forgive sinners and ever lives to intercede for them.
Everyone has some degree of need for that intervening
love. We have been called to give it.
He held the pitcher-stooping low
To lips of little ones below,
Then raised it to the weary saint
And bade him drink when sick and faint!
They drank-the pitcher thus between,
The hand that held it scarce was seen.
-Anonymous
63
SIX
GENUINE
TRANSFORMATION
But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our
Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. 2 Peter 3:18
A little girl prepared a spaghetti and meatball dinner
for her father. At the table, he looked in shock at the plate
on which his dinner was served . ~ ~ M y dear, this is the cat' s
dish," he told his daughter. "But I washed it," was her
reply. IJ'Doesn't matter, dear; this is his plate and it
belongs to him alone!" This funny incident related by a
friend illustrates the biblical principle of sanctification. In
the father's mind, the plate belonged to the cat. Washing
the plate did not change it. There would have to be a
demonstratively significant change in the plate for it to be
acceptable to Dad!
Similarly, man is entirely unacceptable to God out-
side of being cleansed through an exchanged life at Cal-
65
vary. Biblical sanctification occurs in three stages: posi-
tional, progressive, and ultimate. At salvation, the be-
liever receives the immediate action of being set apart
unto God. This is the positional, one-time everlasting
separation of the Christian from his identity as a citizen of
the kingdom of darkness to his citizenship in the king-
dom of Jesus Christ. The Bible often refers to Christians
as "saints," which means .II set apart ones." Evans, in his
book Great Doctrines of the Bible, states, "If a man is not a
saint, he is not a Christian; if he is a Christian, he is a saint.
In some quarters people are canonized after they are
dead; the New Testament canonizes believers while they
are alive!"
The final form of sanctification will find the believer
complete in every way when, at the rapture of the Church,
"we shall be like Him." The trump shall sound and He
will #change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like
unto His glorious body, according to the working whereby
He is able even to subdue all things unto Himself" (Phil.
3:21). In the meantime, until that final day, the Christian
living on the earth is being progressively sanctified in a
process of spiritual growth.
Salvation does not eradicate the old sin nature which
wars with the new life of the Spirit in the believer. The
ongoing aspect of spiritual growth involves learning how
to manifest our heavenly position in our experience as we
yield daily to the Lordship of Christ, the power of the
Holy Spirit, and the Word of God. Jesus illustrated the
difference between positional and progressive sanctifica-
tion in John 13 when He knelt to wash the disciples' feet.
~ ~ ' T h o u shalt never wash my feet," Peter protested. Jesus
answered, "'If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with Me."
Peter changed his mind "Lord, not my feet only, but also
66
Genuine Transformation
my hands and my head"! But Jesus said, "'He that is
washed needeth not save to wash his feet, but is clean
every whit." In other words, Peter had already been
positionally sanctified, set apart for God. But his feet
would need to be washed again and again. Feet speak of
our day-to-day walk with the Lord. Just as Peter, walking
through the dust and dung of Judaea in that day needed
to wash his feet often, spiritually we walk through the
muck and mire of a corrupt world. We fail, we sin, we
make wrong decisions because we are human. But we do
not have to remain in the dust. We can come to Jesus in
prayer and find Him in His Word and have our feet
cleansed. Through an ongoing walk with Him, we be-
come conformed to His image and develop that maturity
of character which glorifies Him.
"If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to
forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unright-
eousness" (1 John 1:9). God made a provision for our
times of stumbling. In His omniscience, He foreknew the
times we would fail. There are growing pains in the
maturation process as we learn to decrease and let Christ
increase in our lives. But when we fall, we do not have to
stay down. The only real failures are those who fall and
refuse to stand up again. "For a just man falleth seven
times, and riseth up again" (Prov. 24:16).
I know an alcoholic who came to Christ, yet found
his habit hard to break. Though he failed even after his
conversion, he never lost hope. He kept believing that
God was bigger than his sin. Each time of failure was
followed by repentance and encouragement from the
church as we continued to love and pray for him. Finally,
a few years later, he took his last drink. He testifies that
he has not taken a drink, now, for over fifteen years.
67
On the other hand, a famous radio evangelist in the
Northeast failed and became so discouraged that he
refused to get back up. Because he felt unloved and
rejected, he continued to drink, then he turned to drugs,
and eventually took his own life. It was a sad ending for
a gifted Christian. I often wonder whether a loving
response from a few brothers in the faith would have
stopped this man's path of self-destruction. Too often,
Christians do not want to be contaminated by fellowship-
ping with someone who has fallen, even if repentance is
there. There is One who stands for us no matter what we
do. Jesus Christ is our advocate before God, the Father.
He represents us even when we are guilty. Our position
in Christ is never in jeopardy, being eternal through His
finished work.
My little children, these things write I unto you,
that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an
advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the right-
eous: and He is the propitiation for our sins:
and not for our's only, but also for the sins of the
whole world (1 John 2:1-2).
Grace is our means of growth. Even if we sin
outright, we can always turn back to God. "Let the
wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his
thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and He will
have mercy upon him; and to our God, for He will
abundantly pardon" (Isa. 55:7).
In the fifteenth chapter of John's gospel, known to
many as the .{/vine" chapter, Jesus uses the metaphor of a
grapevine to explain spiritual principles of growth. "Abide
in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of
itself, unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you,
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unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the
branches; he who abides in Me, and I in him, he bears
much fruit; for apart from Me you can do nothing. If
anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a
branch, and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them
into the fire, and they are burned. If you abide in Me, and
My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it
shall be done for you" (John 15:4-7; NASB). The word
"abide" means to stay in place, to remain in a specific
sphere. Our positional standing is "in Christ." Ideally,
Jesus would have us remain constantly in His sphere of
influence in our earthly experience.
How do we do this? John, in his opening chapter,
spoke of Christ as the ~ w o r d made flesh." God's Word is
more than just His communication to us; it is His very life.
To abide in Christ means to stay in His Word and remain
in the sphere of its influence. This truth connotes the
importance of the local church. Every Christian should
be an active member of a church where the Word of God
is preached in its entirety. Our relationship with the Bible
is vital to growth. Not surprisingly, the Bible's longest
chapter is Psalm 119, containing 176 verses exalting God's
Word and its benefits. TheW ord of God guides, protects,
purifies, empowers, encourages, and delivers! Those
who abide in the Word and submit to the transformation
process become great men and women in the kingdom of
God, producing much spiritual fruit.
The Apostle Peter had to go through various stages
of growth which were often embarrassingly right before
the public eye. Bona fide change involves the conversion
of the mind, not just outwardly conforming to a new set
of standards. Progressive sanctification means being a
partaker of God's own nature through accelerated faith in
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His promises.
The combination of grace plus knowledge makes
the Word of God digestible to the human soul. Knowl-
edge of the letter, alone, can kill human capacity. If the
mentality reverts back to a schoolmaster relationship
with the Law, there will be no maturing into spiritual
sonship. Knowledge alone is not sufficient. We know no
truth as we ought to know it until what we know pos-
sesses our being. Thousands taught by the Scriptures
never let them take over the soul. When God's Word
inhabits the human heart, it produces a spiritual celebra-
tion within. "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in
all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in
psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with
grace in your hearts to the Lord" (Col. 3:16).
We can become so locked into the externals that we
neglect allowing a living God to speak to the spirit and
write upon the heart. Preoccupation with the rate of our
own growth can take the joy out of our salvation experi-
ence. Theology is not enough. Paul, himself, said "with
my mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh
the law of sin" (Rom. 7:25). His doctrine was flawless but
he had yet to learn how to trust the One he longed to serve.
There is a rest for the people of God, a cessation from one's
own labors. When Paul discovered the secret of faith-rest,
he was able to physically work many more hours of the
day because his energy was not consumed by tension and
nervous activity. The issue is the operation of God's own
life, not the regulation of the outward manifestation.
Without receiving God's life, our programs are only
attempts to manipulate dead flesh!
"Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy
laden and I will give you rest" (Matt. 11:28). Christ came
70
to call us away from a life of unfruitful, religious drudg-
ery. We have to accept the fact that we are humans in a
gradual process, instead of trying to please a manufac-
tured image of God which we can never satisfy. The
propensity of the flesh is to try to self-atone. The work has
been finished. The process is learning to let the splendor
of a risen Lord shine from within the vessel. An incor-
ruptible seed is germinating in the midst of the corrupt-
ible. The cross we take up daily is our identification with
what has been done and Who lives within. It is an
adventure of learning mercy from faith to faith and glory
to glory. From promise to promise and from glimpse to
glimpse, the Spirit of the Lord is changing us into His
image.
The Law condemns, exacting a payment we can
never give. But we are dead to that standard which has
caused so much subjective guilt! We work out our
salvation with the new revelation of God's grace. "'There
is therefore now no condemnation" (Rom. 8:1). We can
dance on the dust of the coffin in total liberation because
we are married to Another! "Let us labor therefore to
enter into that rest" (Heb. 4:11). It is still a labor, because
we have to wrestle with our own unbelief. Our humanity
does not readily accept all that Christ has for us, thereby
limiting its experience to a process. But even when we fail
to believe as we know we should, God loves us anyway!
If our hearts condemn us, He is greater than the human
heart!
A Transformed Ego
In Mark 6:31, Jesus said, "Come ye yourselves apart ...
and rest a while." If we do not come apart, we will come
apart! Grace beckons, but will we come? In order to run
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the spiritual race, excess baggage must be left behind.
Over the years, a self-made ego structure has been built.
This ego defends and drives us, substituting for the voice
of God. Those who do not have a strong ego keep life at
arm's length. To them, everything is abstract, imper-
sonal, and lonely. Negative ego is when the sense of self
has been developed in reaction to authority. People
pleasers do the opposite, living in the image others proj-
ect toward them. They are displaced non-persons though
they may seem very well adjusted and hardworking.
Workaholics sometimes fall into this category. Most
marriages fail because the two individuals involved do
not know who they really are. The ego, or non-ego,
developed from childhood is a weight that keeps Chris-
tifffis from spontaneously responding to grace in an unin-
hibited growth process. Pressure from the pulpit and
well-meaning brothers and sisters in Christ can keep
others on the treadmill of anxiety so they never truly enter
the race. An overemphasis on rules challenges the adamic
nature, bringing back reflections and old responsive
patterns of the subjective mind.
People required to conform and perform may even-
tually react. A non-person cannot perform the duties of
a true person. Growth means becoming the unique
individuals that God has made us to be. The conception
of who we think we are and how we have always been
must be laid aside so that we can experience personal
growth in response to knowledge of a gracious Person.
There is sacrifice in change. The old must give way to the
new. Jesus told us to eat His flesh and drink His blood
(John 6:53). As an individual, I must saturate my psyche
with the consciousness of Jesus Christ-Who He is and
what He had done for me. The love of God must become
72
personal. Consecration to a brand new perception of
identity through theW ord of God will develop a new self-
image in the dark room of the imagination. This new ego,
based on unchanging truth, is able to live before God and
love others, having found true security and significance.
Failure can be the catalyst to a once-and-for-all
changeover. A pastor's wife was caught stealing. The
ministry in her husband's new church had been thriving,
the only problem being a lack of funds. Because she
identified so strongly with his need, her ego being wrapped
up in the church's potential success or failure, she ration-
alized a plan to "borrow" a large amount of cash to which
she had access. When the theft was discovered, it was
treated as a major scandal. She, herself, was shocked into
the realization of the depth of her own depravity. The
hour of crisis forced her to admit she had no righteous-
ness. But, in all reality, she never did!
Guilt, heartache, and inner struggle come from trying
to establish some measure of human righteousness. "For
they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going
about to establish their own righteousness, have not
submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God"
(Rom. 10:3). This zeal without knowledge attributed to
an unbelieving Israel exists in the Church of Jesus Christ.
God allows unusual and embarrassing things to happen
so that we will realize that we are nothing without Him.
While men strut their qualifications based upon the
measurements of comparison, God is not impressed by
relative righteousness. The only ones He can bless are
those who acknowledge themselves to be bankrupt-
those who are ready to be blessed by unmerited favor,
alone.
Man puts that which is broken aside, but God puts
73
that which is unbroken aside. Pride is a stumbling block
which inhibits a true work of God. ~ ~ ' T a k e up the stum-
bling block out of the way of My people. For thus saith the
high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name
is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also
that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit
of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones"
(Isa. 57:14-15).
The pastor's wife had to realize that even before she
took the money, she had no righteousness. "What hast
thou that thou didst not receive?" (1 Cor. 4:7). Any
position, talent, or fellowship which the Christian enjoys
are gifts given by grace, as is the righteousness we possess
in Christ. Progressive spirituality comes through pro-
gressive humility of response to the promises of grace. As
we commune with Christ's mind, more and more of the
7,837 promises contained in the Bible become our per-
sonal property through faith appropriation in the frame
of reference. "He sent His Word and healed them" (Ps.
107:20). The objective nature of God filling our subjective
consciousness empowers our humanity with the Pres-
ence of divinity.
A woman listening to my radio broadcast was under
unusual stress. Her husband had left her and the whole
family was falling apart. Because of her desperate straits,
when she heard the message of God's unconditional love
and faithfulness, she breathed it in like it was food from
heaven. All she had were promises but they built her up
in faith. While she was experiencing this process of
spiritual restoration, her husband was seriously hurt in a
car accident. He came home after being in the hospital
many weeks and they were reconciled. She had need of
patience but she believed the God of all grace in back of
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each promise.
God meets the one who is so far down that he will
listen to a promise. Only when we have lost all hope in
flesh and blood are we willing to adventure onto a brand
new pathway of thinking. Some Christians are afraid if
their old frame of reference dies, there will be no resurrec-
tion! Religious ego is exhausting. The ego is put to better
use in personally receiving God's promises than in trying
to control behavior and situations.
Sometimes our experience seems dark. Job did not
understand the process he was in but he said, "He knoweth
the way that I take." We will not always be on a glorious
mountaintop but we can learn to trust God in the valley.
Job had esteemed God's Word more than his necessary
food. He knew that he was in the center of God's will and
that, somewhere, God was in his darkness.
From the mount of transfiguration to the pandemo-
nium below where they were unable to cast out a trouble-
some demon, the disciples experienced both the glory of
Christ's deity in their midst and the depravity of their
human condition. They had experiences of faith and of
faithlessness. The transformed ego is not intimidated by
its own inadequacy, but just keeps looking to the light,
knowing that there will be an ultimate and lasting dawn.
Individualization
As Christ, the Morning Star, illuminates our experi-
ence, He increasingly becomes our reality. But, for some,
experiencing God in a progressive way is almost impos-
sible because of the many layers of defense mechanisms
making up their human construction. The voices of
conscience, the past, and parental input, though they may
be interpreted as God's voice, are only subjective echos
75
reflecting one's yesterdays and the dominant influences
of today. Relationships often substitute for relating to
Christ. Relationships are sacred but in themselves are not
our destiny. Believers must learn how to individualize
because the partner, the friend, the association, and the
pastor will not always be there. Individuals need to grow
and change in their own personal destinies.
Christians stagnate because they do not adventure
out of the old. Familiarity makes it difficult to experience
the supernatural side of one's salvation. The negative
frame of reference built over the years inhibits the soul
from understanding hope. The natural man, "'born unto
trouble as the sparks fly upward," has difficulty compre-
hending what it means to have an All-Powerful God
dwelling within.
Sin is natural but recovery is not. Recovery means
being supernaturally restored to a supernatural walk.
Mercy miraculously wipes away the scars of yesterday.
~ ~ ' B e real" taunts the voice of a cursed creation. "Yes, be
real," exclaims the indwelling Spirit: be real about your
supernatural provision! Instead of looking to God first,
we have been educated to do that which comes naturally
first and if that fails, to look for supernatural help. Reli-
gion looks to human resources for reform and self -better-
ment. But God gives us a living hope. Free from our
marriage to yesterday, we have a new Partner, Christ,
who is in love with us whether we fail or succeed! This
living relationship motivates us to look to Him, which
causes us to become like Him in spite of ourselves!
Being accepted before change comes releases the
soul to receive the power to change! God shakes our
worlds and lets us fall so that we will forsake the old
creation and live before Him, alone. Joshua stood in the
76
River Jordan until all the people passed over. Jesus
stations Himself as our Mediator as we pass from death
over to life in a process of faith. All the promises of
Canaan are ours despite the giants still in the land, but we
have to walk by faith in order to enter in. Every day we
are getting closer to Christ, our hope of glory. Only
pharisaical phonies profess that they never fail. Their
religious defense mechanisms make them nonentities
with God. But we can go beyond concepts and an
unpurged conscience to grow into an eternal identity
given by grace.
Christ is in the process of bringing many sons to
glory. The treasure lies buried in the midst of a ruin-a
history of sin, guilt, heartache, and pride. Outward rules
can never substitute for an inward relationship which
cleanses the soul from these points of reference. Each
Christian is responsible for a direct vertical exchange
with God. Sickness, accidents, and financial problems are
all part of God's move to dose in on us! Wilderness
situations are ordained as times of facing God eyeball to
eyeball. Naturally we react and look for a scapegoat. But
we do not have to run. We can relaxbecause God is in the
driver's seat. It becomes easy when we give it all to Him,
not even blaming ourselves.
Silver cannot be withdrawn from the fire until its
Maker's reflection can be seen. Nothing will change or
get better until we can reflect Christ in the midst of our
situation. That is true progress. What we want and what
we ought to be finally come together in the apprehension
of God's love. No payment is being exacted but a substi-
tutionary life is being offered. While it may seem hard to
let go of the ego that has brought us thus far, our heavenly
Bridegroom challenges every believer with this personal
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invitation: "It is the voice of my beloved that knocketh,
saying, Open to Me ... My love, My dove, My undefiled"
(Song of Sol. 5:2).
Reflections
I thank God for the bitter things;
They've been a "friend to grace";
They've driven me from the paths of ease
To storm the secret place.
I thank Him for the friends who failed
To fill my heart's deep need;
They've driven me to the Saviour's feet
Upon His life to feed.
I'm grateful, too, through all life's way
No one could satisfy,
And so I've found in God alone
My rich, my full supply.
-Florence White Willett
1
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SEVEN
HUMAN
RESPONSIBILITY
The growth process includes correction. Crisis
smashes the shell of previously acquired subjective pat-
terns so that we can enjoy the experience of our internal
treasure. Chastening, as the normal interaction between
parent and child, promotes continued and intensified
fellowship in the new found relationship. Those who are
u accepted in the Beloved" are accountable to all the
privileges and responsibilities of their position. A dedi-
cated monarch will discipline the heir apparent to the
throne. "'For whom the Lord loveth, He correcteth: even
as a father the son in whom he delighteth" (Prov. 3:12).
We have been made part of the royal family through the
process of spiritual adoption. Just as my wife and I, many
years ago, adopted a little five month old girl, God has
adopted us as His legal heirs. As we grow up in Him, He
watches over our development with a careful eye:
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My son, do not make light of the Lord's disci-
pline, and do not lose heart when He rebukes
you, because the Lord disciplines those He
loves and He punishes everyone He accepts as
a son (Heb. 12:5-6; NIV).
In order for the Lord to effectively teach us, He must
first cleanse the conscience. An adopted child who has
experienced much previous abuse needs love and contin-
ual assurance of his new state before he can receive
,instruction without considering it rebuke or punishment.
A Christian with an uncleansed conscience always thinks
God is punishing when anything remotely negative
happens. /;'Perfect love casts out fear" (1 John 4:18). A
healthy fear of the Lord is based on absolute trust in His
loving character and resulting reverence for all His ways.
RSVP
Most invitations include an RSVP, the abbreviated
form of the French phrase" please respond!" Every one of
God's promises which invite us to partake of His nature
bear an invisible RSVP. Divine grace does not bypass
human participation. Salvation without obedience is
profession without possession. The experience of grace is
reserved for those who humble themselves to respond.
Free volition must reckon on God's Word in order to
release its power. That is why faith is referred to as a
#work" in John, chapter six and Hebrews, chapter four.
Passivity is not the same as faith-rest. One is the paralyz-
ing effect of unbelief and the other is the release that
comes from reliance on Christ's completed work.
True repentance is the soul cooperating with the gift
of grace; it is the effect of the gospel on the responsive
80
Human Responsibility
human heart. It is God's will that we experience an
ongoing repentance through the continual transforma-
tion of the mind. Faith comes by hearing the Word of God
which is a critic and accurate judge of the heart. God's
Word separates the old lines of the fallen mind from the
fresh perspective of the Holy Spirit. The Apostle Paul
said, commend you to God, and to the word of His
grace, which is able to build you up, and to give you an
inheritance among all them which are sanctified" (Acts
20:32).
It is not the dead letter which converts the soul but
the living sword of the Spirit which releases the human
psyche and will. "The letter killeth" (2 Cor. 3:6). Those
who try to chasten their own soul with verses of con-
demnation only strengthen their own weaknesses. That is
why a skilled pastor-teacher is imperative for the Chris-
tian who desires to really grow under God's instruction.
The workman trained in the Word is able to rightly divide
truth so the flesh is bound and the spirit is released, not
vice versa! Under the discipline of academic learning, a
transforming process occurs as the downward pull of the
fall is neutralized and the spiritual man is quickened.
""Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all,
with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the
Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to
glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord" (2 Cor. 3:17-18).
The glass is theW ord of God. The veil of the Law strength-
ening the inability of the flesh has been removed. The
glory of the Lord is the revelation of grace through
Calvary. That is what changes an individual!
Esau repented but he never changed because he
rejected his birthright. Some Christians reject their new
identity through the new birth by continually trying to
81
change what God has and is changing. The activity of
their will is actually counter-productive. Tears are shed
and efforts made again and again without lasting effects
because of the wrong premise for repentance. "Works
meet for repentance" speaks of having active and abso-
lute faith in the Son's forgiving power. Repentance does
not mean demonstrating outward proof of being sorry so
that one can be restored. There is no such thing as "easy
believism." There is only one kind of true believism and
that is in the work and person of Jesus Christ." Abraham
believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteous-
ness" (Rom. 4:3).
Faith frees the soul from guilt and striving so that it
can function in the Spirit. The fruits of functioning in the
Spirit are love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness,
goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance-"' against
such there is no law" (Gal. 5:22-23). God's Word will
produce the fruit if we do our partwhichis to believe. Just
as looking to the brazen serpent inN umbers 21 healed the
people of their serpent bites, we experience progressive
healing by gazing on Christ through the Word. '.(Whereby
are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises:
that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature,
having escaped the corruption that is in the world through
lust" (2 Pet. 1:4). When we look at God's promises through
the eye of faith, everything else about our lives begins to
reflect His goodness. "The light of the body is the eye: if
therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full
of light" (Matt. 6:22). The Word of God lights our path so
that we can hear the voice of the Spirit saying .I./This is the
way, walk ye in it" (Isa. 30:21). Therefore, the Bible,
communicated in life, is God's desired means of instruc-
tion and correction.
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Godly Sorrow
When Isaiah saw the Lord high and lifted up in His
finished work position, he cried: "Woe is me! for I am
undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell
in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have
seen the king, the Lord of hosts" (Isa. 6:5). The revelation
of God is always accompanied by the consciousness of
having fallen short of His glory. Peter cried "depart from
me; for I am a sinful man, 0 Lord" when He realized who
Jesus really was. Conviction (not condemnation) is the
response of the soul to God's Presence. Because God is in-
visible, believers can easily become familiar with what
they think they know about Him and live by knowledge
instead of communion. Isaiah was shocked to realize that
he had not been speaking from the throne so the people
had been left unchanged.
The Word of God, properly expressed through the
Spirit, rouses us out of our natural complacency with self
and our tolerance of sin. The apostle Paul shook up the
Corinthians when he wrote to them. His words caused
sorrow when they realized they had not handled a spe-
cific situation in the church with Christ's mind. They
were sorry because they really loved God and loved Paul.
Their sorrow led to instant obedience. Worldly sorrow is
being sorry for getting caught and having to bear the
consequences. Godly sorrow means being heartbroken
because of love. God's power does all the changing but
we walk sensitively and reverently because it is God's
power. Brokenness which leads to obedience is the full
manifestation of the true heart of faith.
Sensitivity to the probings of the Holy Spirit through
God's Word will keep us spiritually up to date in a
continual cleansing process. The same responsive capac-
83
ity which a i d ~ ~ yes" to the invitation of salvation, contin-
ues to receive power to become a prayer warrior, a church
member, and a soul winner.
The Contrite Heart
There is a holy sacrifice
which God in heaven will not despise
Yea, which is precious in His eyes-
The contrite heart.
The Holy One, the Son of God
His pardoning love will shed abroad,
And consecrate as His abode-
The contrite heart.
The Holy Spirit from on high
will listen to its faintest sigh,
And cheer and bless and purify
The contrite heart.
Saviour, I cast my hopes on Thee;
such as Thou art, I fain would be!
In mercy, Lord, bestow on me
The contrite heart.
-Montgomery
1
Meekness leads to motivation. Looking unto Jesus
provides the impetus to run the race. Exhaustion (be-
cause of procrastination), and distraction (because of self-
occupation) are the twin enemies which cause us to
neglect cultivating our responsive capacity toward grace
to be made like Christ through the Spirit.
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We should never underestimate the ability of God's
Word to convict and convert its listener. Recently a Bible
College student was witnessing to a man in the inner city.
The man looked at him and said, uyou have ruined my
evening." It turned out he had been in the streets for the
purpose of robbing someone that evening, but the stu-
dent's words changed his mind and the would-be robber
gave his heart to Jesus instead! Zaccheus, the public
menace, becomes Zaccheus, the public benefactor after
being in the Master's Presence! What the law could never
do, grace is able to accomplish within the heart of one who
lets God in.
God's Order
Order preserves our freedom to grow and develop.
Order in the church keeps the devil and confusion out.
Every institution must have order in order to function. A
person on an independent ego trip may accuse a ministry
of being legalistic when it is only being orderly. God has
ordained authority for man's protection. "For rulers are
not a terror to good works, but to the evil" (Rom. 13:3).
Proper delegated authority in the church is given for the
believers' edification, not their destruction. The oversee-
ing pastor is commanded by God to preach, reprove and
rebuke, giving God's Word and Spirit free sway in hearts
and lives. National order protects the functioning of the
church. Ministerial order protects the functioning of the
individual. Personal order releases the free functioning of
the Word and Spirit within.
In Ephesians 4:11, the gifts which Christ bestows on
the church are people ordained to lead it into fruitful
production. Honoring the table of organization enables
productivity in the plan of God. A chain of command is
85
necessary because of the devil' s continued presence in
this world. Directly after the fall, Adam was put in charge
as Eve's head so that she would be protected from de-
monic influence. Humility in the local assembly provides
spiritual protection: "Because your adversary the devil,
as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may
devour" (1 Pet. 5:8).
To keep out this master of confusion, there is an
order that we must follow if a brother sins. By following
this order, his freedom to grow is preserved and the
integrity of the entire church is maintained. Just after
Jesus spoke of protecting God's little ones and of the
Shepherd's heart to retrieve the one little lamb gone
astray, He gave these instructions concerning the order of
restoration which the church was to practice: ulf thy
brother shall trespass against thee" [notice, the trespass
must be against you, personally. If it does not involve
you, you are to keep out of it because it is none of your
concern!]," go and tell him his fault between thee and him
alone: if he shall hear thee, thou has gained thy brother.
But if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two
more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every
word may be established. And if he shall neglect to hear
the church: let him be unto thee as an heathen man and a
publican" (Matt. 18:15-17).
The motive for confronting a brother is to win him
back into fellowship with the truth. Sin does not make
him lose his status as a brother. Family signifies a blood-
tie which can never be denied. Every believer has been
washed by the same blood and is part of the family of God
forever. If the fallen brother responds to the initiations of
love and he repents, the matter is finished. It is forgiven,
forgotten and over. It cannot be brought up again at a later
86
date as spiritual blackmail. It is not God's will that we live
in constant fear of being exposed for past failures. Those
who are truly spiritual seek to reconcile and restore, not
expose and defeat.
"Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which
are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness;
considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted" (Gal. 6:1).
The Greek word for "restore" was also often used in ref-
erence to mending nets. The body of Christ is the net with
which we catch men. Hearts must be mended andre-
stored in order for the church to properly function. Another
meaning of Hrestore" is to set back in place a dislocated
joint. The backslider is a dislocated, not a severed, mem-
ber who has been distracted from his position in Christ
because of a hard tackle. Christians who have sinned
have been knocked down by temptation. They are dis-
jointed, in need of mending and loving restoration.
#Redeeming the time," in regard to one who sins,
means to make every effort to restore a brother as soon as
possible. A young person who falls into immorality at
sixteen should not have to spend several years of his life
in guilt, sorrow and isolation. He needs to be forgiven,
restored, loved. There are many productive years left to
his life and we can be the means of redeeming those years.
Husbands and wives can redeem the time in marriage by
not letting petty arguments be blown out of proportion.
The rising divorce rate among Christian couples is a
symptom of progressive hard-heartedness and a lack of
understanding biblical reconciliation.
The case in the Corinthian church of the man who
was living in open adultery with his stepmother was
dealt with immediately upon reception of Paul's orders.
Because he refused to repent, the whole church agreed to
87
treat him as a heathen and not fellowship with him. Bro-
kenhearted, the man forsook his sin because the pleas-
ures of the flesh can never substitute for the joys of
spiritual communion. Like one preacher said, "The first
day of sin is the best day because after that, the guilt and
bondage only grow worse and worse." Unfortunately,
this repentant brother was not restored as immediately as
he was formerly ostracized. Paul had to write another
letter of instruction telling the church to receive him back
into fellowship because he had forsaken his sin.
God's heart is to leave the ninety and nine and to
restore the one who has fallen. It is not the office of the
church to teach the fallen one a lesson. "Thine own
wickedness shall correct thee, and thy backslidings shall
reprove thee" (Jer. 2:19). Sin, itself, is the best incentive
not to do it again.
Failure is a better teacher than success
But she seldom finds an apple on her desk!
Righteous Judgment
Human responsibility requires the Christian to make
proper kinds of judgments as he interacts with those in
his sphere. The Apostle Paul scolded the Corinthians for
not judging the case of open adultery. The local assembly
has the right and the duty to make value judgments
concerning anything which affects the welfare of its
membership. Paul instructed his flock not to eat with any
church member who was living in open opposition to the
character of God. Not only was immorality an issue, but
also gossip, criticism, extortion and drunkenness. Paul
recommended this isolation policy, not because of hate
but because of love. Love for God, love for purity,love for
88
the church and love for the backslidden church member
constrains the discerning Christian to take uncompro-
mising action. In 1 Corinthians 11:22-31, many were sick,
and some even died in the church for not discerning the
body of Christ when they partook of communion. They
suffered because of not rightly judging!
The Apostle Peter held Ananias and Sapphira re-
sponsible for the lie they told about the value of the
property which they had sold and donated to the church.
The consequences of their sin shocked the entire congre-
gation! Bona fide judgment protects the whole church.
The table of organization must be honored whether it is in
the home, an athletic association, or a business; but espe-
cially in the church which should represent the mind of
Christ. Paul appeared before the church council in Acts
15:4. He submitted himself to proper procedures, trusting
the elders' powers of discernment. In 1 Corinthians 6,
Paul recommends that the church settle disputes be-
tween its members instead of having them tried before
the eyes of the world in the secular court system. His
reasoning was that since the saints are going to one day
judge the spirit world with Christ, they should be able to
settle smaller, earthly matters!
In Acts 17:11, the Bereans were commended for
using their faculties, researching the Scriptures to rightly
judge Paul's message. "'Strong meat belongeth to them
that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have
their senses exercised to discern both good and evil"
(Heb. 5:14). In looking for a church and spiritual fellow-
ship, discernment is imperative. "Beloved, believe not
every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God"
(1 John 4:1). Any teacher or preacher who denies the
incarnation is not of God and must be considered a false
89
prophet. False churches have every liberty to exist and
true Christians have every liberty to discern and avoid
them. We are commanded to test, to prove and to scruti-
nize the doctrine of a church before we join it to see if they
believe in the deity of Christ and the cardinal doctrines of
faith.
Christ needs His disciples to discern between the
better and the best, as well. He does not want us to simply
settle for something good. He has a perfect will and plan
for each life. In Romans 4:20, Abraham studied the prom-
ise of God all the way through to its logical end. He rightly
judged the character of the Promiser, making his deci-
sions based upon that judgment.
In James, chapter three, we are to judge ourselves by
what comes out of our mouths! True wisdom manifests
itself in purity and peaceableness. "'Judge not according
to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment" Gohn
7:24). Carnal judgment is based upon sight and hearsay.
We are not to make judgments of comparison between
servants of Christ, quibble over lesser doctrines, interpre-
tations and preferences, or condemn ourselves if we are
living up to the truth that we have been taught. We are not
to judge those not in our jurisdiction. If the trespass in
question involves the assembly that I am in, I have every
right to inform the pastor so that a little leaven does not
affect the whole. But if it does not concern me or my
church, I have no right to become involved in the judging
process. Thousands of Christians have transgressed in
this area simply by reading the newspaper!
They search out iniquities; they accomplish a
diligent search: both the inward thought of
every one of them, and the heart, is deep. But
God shall shoot at them with an arrow; sud-
90
denly shall they be wounded. So they shall
make their own tongue to fall upon them-
selves: all that see them shall flee away (Ps.
64:6-8).
According to 1 Corinthians 4:5, we cannot judge
men's motives. Since we are all in the process of growth,
we cannot always discern people's hearts by their actions.
They may be failing miserably outwardly but growing
inwardly. We cannot judge one another's convictions.
Each must be allowed to live unto the Lord. Destructive
criticism, personal crusades against other churches, vin-
dictiveness and reactionary campaigns are all condemned
by the Word of God.
91
EIGHT
CAPITALIZING
ON FAILURE
Today's coliseum mentality thrives on putting on
trial before the lions men and women who profess to have
faith. The public sits in the grandstands of human evalu-
ation hoping fallen heros will "get theirs" for the very
failures which characterize their own lives. There is a
thirst for blood in the air. Why are so many ready to
assumetheworstandsofewdisposed to believe the best?
A lynch-mob mentality is forming, with well-known
Christian leaders in the fore. Instead of preaching the
gospel, these men seem to be elevating themselves upon
the failures of others.
Failure can be a pedestal for the light, if Christ is
magnified in the midst. But instead of lifting up the Light
of the world, light is being obscured by pointing fingers
and eager voices coming forward with the "evidence."
This is not a climate conducive to honest growth, emo-
93
tiona! healing, or promotion of the glad tidings of God's
forgiveness through Christ.
Recently, news of the failure of a well-known minis-
ter was the headline story in newspapers and on televi-
sion. A number of other Christian ministers collaborated
with the secular media to circulate details and allegations
concerning this man's life. These Christian leaders col-
laborated with the world and even commended the media
for its coverage of the story. Are these men ignorant of the
apostle Paul's words in 2 Corinthians 6:14-15? "Be not
unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fel-
lowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? And
what communion hath light with darkness? And what
concordhathChristwithBelial?Orwhatparthathhethat
believeth with an infidel?"
In this situation, believers of the light joined forces
with those of the darkness. What was the effect? The
entire evangelical Christian community was placed under
suspicion. As one pastor said, "It was a tremendous blow
to the cause of Christ as a whole." These Christian leaders
did the world a favor, not the Church. The damage they
inflicted may take years to heal. Furthermore, should
they be caught in a similar failure, the same media that
listened so respectfully to them and published their
comments will tum its focus on them.
This is not to excuse the man's sin. He is a public
figure and is paying a severe price for his wrong deci-
sions. He is accountable to his local church and to the
organization that sanctioned him as a minister. However,
any matter involving a believer who personally sins but
does not break any civil laws should be handled in proper
scriptural order within these structures. He remains a
member of the body of Christ. He needed and still needs
94
Capitalizing on Failure
Christ's love.
There is a growing social mind-set against evangeli-
cal Christianity which makes failure a matter of public re-
joicing. When we consider the Jones town tragedy of 1978,
we are reminded of the Christians being implicated in the
burning of Rome! The "Reverend" Jim Jones established
a quasi-Christian community in the jungle of Guyana
with no church, no chapel, and no place of prayer. Jones,
explicitly socialistic, at the time of his death was report-
edly negotiating with the Soviet Union for a new home of
his "experiment in socialism." Ignoring the overwhelm-
ing evidence of the political nature of the organization,
public consensus has made "religious fanaticism" the
focus of this world-renowned scandal.
Right up until the time a bullet hit his leg, a visiting
eye witness of the Washington Post was plan11.ing to write
an admiring article of Jones town's ideals which, as he saw
it, had all the essentials of progressive politics. Its doc-
trine was social change; its catechism, radical politics.
Jones was a Marxist who called the Bible "a paper idol"
but when his experiment ended in terror, the Bible and
those who adhere to it took the rap.
A zealous determination to "save" unwitting vic-
tims has turned a savage public on an unsuspecting
Church. It is with a self -justifying sense of conscience that
accusations are now being fielded and launched across
the newspapers, courts and conversations of the country
concerning the danger of religion that "hoodwinks the
masses."
"Scaring Up Business"
A multimillion dollar business has been contribut-
ing to the public paranoia concerning religion. In 1974
95
Ted Patrick, convicted felon and father of the practice of
forcible abduction and faithbreaking, founded an organi-
zation dedicated to u deprogramming" young adults who
join religious groups against parental wishes. The Cult
Awareness Network has grown out of his philosophy of
spreading mass hysteria under a cleverly concealed hate
campaign. This well-funded witch-hunting crusade has
succeeded in turning Lutherans against Pentecostals,
Catholics against Protestants, and Jews against Evangeli-
cals.
In an attempt to intensify fear and suspicion, Billy
Graham's name is being linked with Yogi Bhajan' s and
Campus Crusade with Hare Krishna! Although CAN' s
methodology of deprogramming has been publicly con-
demned by nearly every religious organization in Amer-
ica (The National Council of Churches, the Baptist Joint
Committee, the United States Catholic Conference, the
National Association of Evangelicals, the Lutheran Coun-
cil in the USA, and the Synagogue Council of America, as
well as the American Civil Liberties Union all thoroughly
condemn the practice), many churches in these denomi-
nations continue to promote their anti-religious material,
and church members pay thousands of dollars to H res-
cue" their own from the church down the street.
Competition is certainly motivating the support
behind the "liberation" of loved ones from a chosen
religious affiliation. During the 1960s and 70s, mainline
churches lost a large potential membership among their
young adults. At the same time, fundamentalist and
evangelical churches boomed as tens of millions of
Americans declared themselves to be born-again. It was
in reaction to these departures from traditional religion
that the propaganda campaigns began. It is an old story,
96
but one that could have unforeseen repercussions if played
out in modern times.
It is ironic that the very churches who were once
grossly mistreated themselves are now the self-depu-
tized vigilantes the so-called "anti-cult" movement.
(By the way, Reinhard Heydrich, infamous for his author-
ity over the first few months of the murder of the Euro-
pean Jews, just previously had been given the assignment
of ridding the German Reich of its u cults and sects.") At
one time, Catholics experienced some of the most severe
discrimination and violent persecution in American his-
tory. With the influx of Irish immigrants in the 1820s and
30s, Protestants felt their religion and communities de-
fied Anglo-American conformity. Their private schools
and campaigns to convert Protestants were viewed as
subversive. Horror stories circulated about cultic con-
vents and power-mad priests which remarkably parallel
the controversy targeting independent churches today.
Deception, coercion, perversion, subversion, mind con-
trol, and exploitation were the indictments leveled against
them. Ex-members who u escaped" to tell their lurid sto-
ries were often discovered to have private motives for
joining the ranks of the opponents. Many of their testimo-
nies were ghost-written by leaders of the anti-Catholic
movement (read Strange Gods by David G. Bromley).
Perhaps Protestantism was only having its revenge on
the ravaged reputation of John Calvin who was "ex-
posed" by a Carmelite who had been temporarily con-
verted to evangelicalism. He accused Calvin of being an
impostor-who claimed he could resurrect the dead, and
a sodomite who had been sentenced to be branded with
a red-hot iron!
As this replay of the war between the ecclesiastical
97
empires rages, everyone involved is getting hurt. Those
in churches are wounded by becoming involved in reac-
tionary endeavors instead of concentrating on God's
healing love, and spectators outside of the church grow
more convinced than ever that "churchianity" is only a
power play and nothing more. As one man quipped,
"Doctors tell us that hating people can cause cancer, heart
attacks, headaches, skin rashes, and asthma. It doesn't
make the people we hate feel too good either!"
The alarming reality concerning these denomina-
tional war games is the effect they are having on national
religious freedoms. A pervasively negative image of
grassroots Christianity has spread a popular public preju-
dice against any religious belief which goes beyond the
nominal to occupy a dominant place in daily life.
The Failure Hype
A viper bit a slanderer in the side;
The slanderer lived, but the viper diedP
The same press which taught the American public to
hate the Shah of Iran, portrayed Koemini as a benevolent
representative of the people. Yet Koemini killed more
people in a twenty hour period than the Shah had killed
in twenty years! Headlines are often only publicly-sanc-
tioned slander. Abraham Lincoln said that if he read all
the criticisms directed at him, he would have time for
nothing else! Oi\ce alerted to the popular cult issue, the
media has been quick to seize upon sensational stories of
impropriety, financial misappropriation, and the like.
Everybody wants to hear the truth-especially about
somebody else!
Slanted reporting and conviction by innuendo has
98
been decried by thousands of clergy and ministries across
our land. Derogatory stories are being printed without
thorough investigation of the facts and which make no
attempt to present a balanced picture. Wild accusations
make good copy, increasing newspaper circulation and
station appeal. These days the story of a preacher accused
of wrongdoing is just too juicy to pass up! Many of the
"witnesses" providing the material later confess their lies
once the damage already has been done. Twelve thou-
sand court cases against churches were reported in 1988,
and we can be sure that each of them had to battle a full
scale war involving media-distorted information nega-
tively influencing the public. Elmer Gantry and Marjoe-
type imaging has brought ridicule on the servants of
Christ, as well as material loss.
There is an audience for a complaint against a church.
Recently, a Franciscan priest who runs a mission in New
York City was accused of sexual and financial wrongdo-
ing. The accuser's father was flown in to testify that his
son was a chronic liar with a personality disorder, who
was driven to hurt everyone who tried to help him. The
accusations had no validity but they were made during a
peak fund-raising period at Christmas. Many in the con-
gregation were angered and saddened by the way the
media handled the case. Their spokesman said, "It's
turning out to be the classic story of a mentally unstable
person who was able to use the worst example of:tabloid
journalism." A ,'f'
The tragedy is that this incident is not,i$blated, but
typical. The image-making power of extends
into every arena. The editor-in-chief of U.S. News and
World Report began a recent article this way: "The Ameri-
can people are being brainwashed. It has been a long and
99
Forgive Me, Pm Human
subtle process, principally through the medium of televi-
sion." He was addressing the public mood which was
being conditioned to accept measures which would jeop-
ardize the national security of Israel. He did not see the
process as a deliberate plot, but a result of the veneration
of action news which inflames the emotions while taking
little time to research context, history, and character.
To quote Francis Schaeffer, "The media and espe-
cially television have indeed changed the perception of
not only current events, but also of the political process.
They are so powerful that they act as if they were the
fourth branch of government in the United States. Their
ability to change our perception of any event raises seri-
ous questions concerning the democratic process. Chris-
tians must certainly not uncritically accept what they
read, and especially what they see on television, as objec-
tive."
We are at the capricious mercy of popular sentiment.
Whether we will be represented as villains or heros de-
pends upon th_e prejudice currently in vogue. David
Livingstone, once hailed as an unrivaled explorer and
medical missionary, revered as a near saint who epito-
mized every moral virtue, in latter times was "unmasked"
as an arrogant interferer who wantonly enforced alien
and unsuitable values on innocent and ideal societies! In
all reality, he was neither model of perfection nor culture
wrecker. He was a man with a dream, a human being with
many failures who succeeded by daring to advance into
pioneer territory led by biblical convictions. Society once
revered such individuals but the pendulum is swinging
the other way as the sacred is being connected with
scandal and we face a new kind of inquisition.
Indeed, as an article in the Annals of America points
100
out, had Abraham been alive today, he would have been
charged with attempted murder for his faith on Mt.
Moriah. Moses would have been billed as a charismatic
leader drawing thousands of gullible followers to mass
starvation in the wilderness. Jesus would certainly have
been (as he was then) arraigned as a public threat for His
wild assertions of His coming kingdom.
The Lie
First somebody told it, then the room couldn't
hold it,
So the busy tongues rolled it 'til they got it
outside.
Then the crowd came across it, and never once
lost it,
But tossed it and tossed it, 'til it grew long and
wide.
This lie brought forth others, both sisters and
brothers,
And fathers and mothers-a terrible crew.
And while headlong they the people
they flurried, r: 1'.
And troubled and worrjf?7t as lies always do.
And so evil-bodied, this monster lay goaded
'Til at last it exploded in smoke and in shame.
Then from mud and from mire, the pieces flew
higher
And hit the sad liar and killed a good name.
-Anonymous
101
When a prominent Christian figure is accused of
failure, where are the other well-known Christians who
should be standing by his side? They are hiding behind
enemy fire, secretly rejoicing in their brother's downfall
and waiting for their turn to be called forward to de-
nounce the fallen one. It is too reminiscent of scenes
recorded by Christians under repressive socialist control.
"A brother is born for adversity" (Prov. 17:17). When
Saul lost his battle and the enemies rejoiced, David put
aside his personal conflict with him to defend Saul's
name . .uPublish it not in Gath!" he cried. No matter what
internal fighting transpired, David was anxious to pres-
ent a unified front of their mutual cause.
When Noah, father, preacher, and government
leader, was discovered naked in a drunken condition,
Ham -his own son-exposed him to public ridicule. The
man who went on a "save the world" campaign was
found in a state of debauchery! Surely this was headline
material! Ham's two other brothers, honoring their fa-
ther's position, walked backwards into Noah's tent carry-
ing a blanket with which to cover him. They would have
no eye-witness testimony to give.
The Church is being lured into the world via the
microphone, television camera, and witness stand to
disown its own. Is this real integrity? The Bible tells us
that Ham was cursed and his brethren blessed as a result
of their response to the situation. A real Christian is as
horrified by his own sins as he is by his neighbor's! Erwin
W. Lutzer accurately sums up the paranoia that often
prevents Christians fron1 standing by those who have lost
public face: "'Befriending the fallen does appear to be
taking a soft approach to sin. If a man sins, he ought to pay
for it; if he is restored too easily, we are giving the
102
impression that sin is not that serious. So we justify our
inaction with the belief that the offender is just getting his
due. Second, we may even be afraid of guilt by associa-
tion. If we are known to be spending time with one who
failed, we may be considered by others as being guilty,
too. Birds of a feather flock together!"
2
In the middle of Deborah's triumphant song of
praise for a mighty victory, the angel of the Lord inter-
jected a curse against the inhabitants of Meroz J'/because
they came not to the help of the Lord." Jesus asked Saul
of Tarsus, ;;Why persecutest thou Me?" when Saul was
accusing and bringing to trial the early Christians. Christ
ever identifies with the hurts of His people. He says,
"Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these
My brethren, ye have d<2ne it unto Me" (Matt. 25:40). The
sins of omission beinH{judged in that text were those
towards the and outcast: " ... naked and ye
clothed Me not, in prison and ye visited Me not."
What were they for? Surely, if someone has
done wrong, we must not identify with them! The lack of
compassion, identification, and fidelity under pressure
among the brethren has contributed to the disintegration
of the image of the Church at large and the disorientation
of its membership. Speaking engagements are broken,
long-standing friendships severed, and God's blessings
withheld because no one wants to be associated with the
"failure" of a brother who is guilty until proven innocent.
How tenderly I cherish the memory of a dear Catho-
lic brother in New England, Ed Massery, now gone home
to be with the Lord. In the face of public censure and town
gossip, he extended a firm hand of fellowship to me and
my church at that time. He was not afraid to get involved.
He shared prayer and pulpit, always edifying me behind
103
my back and actively identifying with the cause of Christ.
Prominent church leaders who take turns criticizing
each other before the public eye should take heed to
Romans 14:4: "Who art thou that judgest another man's
servant? To his own Master he standeth or falleth. Yea, he
shall be holden up: for God is able to make him stand."
Whether it is concerning doctrinal disputations, organ-
izational differences, or reports of wrongdoing, we are to
honor the stewardship of grace, especially before the
unbelieving. Nathan reproved David, saying "'By this
deed thou hast given great occasion to the enemies of the
Lord to blaspheme" (2 Sam. 12:14). The world is capital-
izing on reports of failure. We do not need to help them!
Judge Not
Judge not!-though clouds of seeming guilt
may dim thy brother's fame;
For fate may throw suspicion's shade upon the
brightest name;
Thou canst not tell what hidden chain of
circumstances may
Have wrought the sad result that takes an
honest name away.
Judge not!
Judge not!-the vilest criminal may rightfully
demand
A chance to prove his innocence by jury of his
land;
And, surely, onewhone' erwas known to break
his plighted word,
Should not be hastily condemned to obloquy
unheard.
Judge not!
104
Judge not!-thou canst not tell how soon the
look of bitter scorn
May rest on thee, though pure thy heart as dew-
drops in the morn.
Thou dost not know what freak of fate may
place upon thy brow
A cloud of shame to kill the joy that rests upon
it now.
Judge not!
Judge not!-but rather in thy heart let gentle
pity dwell;
Man's judgment errs, but there is One who
"doeth all things well."
Ever, throughout the '::oyage of life, this
precept keep in vif,ttW:
"Do unto others as wouldst that they
should do to yoq['
Judge
Judge not!-for one unjust reproach an honest
heart can feel
As keenly as the deadly stab made by the
pointed steel.
The worm will kill the sturdy oak, though
slowly it may die,
As surely as the lightning stroke swift rushing
from the sky.
Judge not!
-Anonymous
A Greater Failure
What freedoms are at risk while Christians fail each
105
other and the media spotlights the process? Donald Sills,
president of the Coalition for Religious Freedom, a Bap-
tist preacher for 25 years, believes the anti-Christian
movement in this country operating under the guise of
cult control could potentially have the power of regulat-
ing all religious groups.
A new anti-cult forum in the form of hearings on the
Guayana tragedy was formed in the Senate, serving as a
catalyst to the formation of the American Family Founda-
tion, a private interest hate group. Dr. John Clark, a
psychiatrist serving this organization, was reprimanded
by his peers after he falsely claimed to be conducting an
official study on "mind control" for the Massachusetts
General Hospital while, in reality, pursuing his anti-cult
activities. He had been reprimanded earlier by the Com-
monwealth of Massachusetts Board of Registration and
Discipline in Medicine for committing an individual to a
psychiatric hospital without an examination. The chief
aim of these groups is to push federal legislation that
would make" mind control" a felony and require existing
N cult" members to submit to physical and mental exami-
nation by non-cult physicians.
Reverend James Bevel, leader of the Selma Right to
Vote Movement, cites such thinking as typical of minor-
ity hate groups. "If we study the demeanor, attitudes,
expressions, and intensity in the Cult Awareness people,
we would see that it is identical to the demeanor, atti-
tudes, and expressions of the Klu Klux Klan." Reverend
Jim Nicholls of the Assemblies of God notes their motives
as being "out for the money and/ or the destruction of
religion, itself."
A pseudo-concern for mental health ignores the
spiritual aspect of personhood, making anyone propa-
106
gating a spiritual product suspect. By taking advantage of
scandalous stories and preying on public fears, they are
bringing the very plausibility of authentic conversion
into question. Anti-religious legislation would pose a
threat to the pluralistic character of American society and
reveal the very propensity toward totalitarianism which
such legislation would be trying to prevent.
How far has this anti-religious movement pro-
gressed? Among the notable church-state cases of 1989
was the ruling made by a federal judge that a Denver
teacher did not have the right to have books on Christian-
ity in his classroom library, or to read the Bible silently
during classroom hours! In another case, based upon the
accusation of excessive child abuse made by an ex-member
against a community the State of Vermont con-
ducted a massive raid aJ:i,'a took all of the children of the
group into custody. months after the raid, the ex-
member confessed lied in making the charges in
order to justify his from the congregation.
The mind-set is being perceived as
"a psychological...social disease," to quote an anti-funda-
mentalist propaganda sheet. Says David Rodier, profes-
sor of religion at American University: "They're brand-
ing groups and individuals who believe in evangelism. I
don't see what's left of Christianity if you forbid evangel-
istic efforts." Biblical aspects of Christian life such as
witnessing, spiritual leadership, conversion, reproof,
correction, and Bible teaching are being labeled as recruit-
ing, shepherding, indoctrination, mind control and brain-
washing.
According to The Christian Cause (1987), those seek-
ing control and the right to decide what is" good" religion
are being given respect and credibility by an increasing
107
number of lawyers, judges, and legislators in a direct
frontal attack on the First Amendment right to free exer-
cise of religion. lfLegislators will listen to us and work
around every First Amendment obstruction if they know
we are strong enough to vote them out of office," confi-
dently exulted John Sweeney, former executive director
of CAN. The type of legislation that has been suggested
includes curbs on evangelism requiring evangelists to
obtain licenses, the lifting of tax-exemptions, and court-
ordered psychiatry for converts.
In 1987, it was estimated that forty times a week,
nationwide, adult men and women were held against
their will, forced to read literature and watch films attack-
ing the victim's religious group. Dr. Gordon Melton,
Methodist minister and author, comments, u a massive
assault upon the psyche and value system of the victim is
as traumatic for some as a physical rape. If the depro-
gramming victim attempts resistance and escape, she or
he will almost surely be physically assaulted and often re-
strained with ropes and/ or handcuffs. On several occa-
sions deprogramming of female victims has led to sexual
assault. In one case, the husband of a woman undergoing
deprogramming was severely cut with a razor while
trying to free his wife from her abductors." Some have
reported being kicked, thrown against walls, and beaten.
Clothes have been ripped off, ice applied night and day,
and sleep deprived in these dehumanizing practices.
These concentration camp tactics are employed by
u exit counselors" earning $15-40,000 per case who have
no authorized training and often cause irreversible damage
in familial relationships. After they persuade the person
to leave their religious affiliation, they can turn around
and sue the church, with the lawyers getting 50% of the
108
damages! Organizations promoting these faith-breaking
sessions have a national network and have even at-
tempted to gain medical approval in order to legitimize
their activities enough so that Blue Cross would pick up
the bulk of the tab!
Many parents and deprogrammers have escaped
conviction because the police or prosecutors looked the
other way, or have under the plea "neces-
sity of defense." They that the end justifies the
means, although this one of the primary "doctrines"
which they accuse religious groups of using.
Estimates from of Freedom research files
indicate that more than half of the membership of the Cult
Awareness Network is actively engaged in some phase of
the kidnapping, transportation, psychological indoctri-
nation, legal protection, or staffing of hidden retreat
centers or other support for deprogramming acts. The
Reverend Dean Kelly, Director of civil and religious
liberty for the National Council of Churches, says that
11
forcible deprogramming is the most serious stain on
religious liberty facing this country in the later half of the
20th century."
Some say this attack on fundamentalism is a smoke
screen to discredit those with whom they disagree politi-
cally. They believe the movement is part of a reactionary
response to the growing number of Christians who are
becoming involved in the political process.
Harvey Cox, Thomas Professor of Divinity at Har-
vard University, says that the word
11
cult" has become a
term used to refer to any religious movement one does
not like. He observes, IJ'There are certainly dishonest and
scheming individuals operating in religious movements
and in many other kinds of movements as well. The' cult
109
scare,' however, goes far beyond any legitimate cause for
concern. It conjures up a general specter, a Godzilla from
the depths that must be destroyed by any means avail-
able. The fact is, however, that legislation already exists to
countermand all the illegal acts attributed to the religious
movements and leaders who violate such laws. No advo-
cate of religious freedom defends the right of someone to
deprive people of their freedom or to falsify income taxes
just because he or she is a religious leader. Being a
religious leader does not exempt anyone from criminal
liability." He goes on to say that "those who have created
the great cult scare are not satisfied with these forms of
protection and refutation. They want to marshal the
power of the State, the churches, the mental health profes-
sion, and other sectors of the society in rooting out some-
thing they see as an unprecedented threat, and they are
perfectly willing to sacrifice legal guarantees, established
scholarly procedures, and accepted boundaries of civil
discourse to do so. If there is a menace abroad, it is
probably the growing power of the alliance between
government and mental health sectors to keep people
thinking and acting the way those in charge think they
should."
3
1991 heralds the 200th birthday of the Bill of Rights.
Religious freedom has been under stronger assault dur-
ing the last decade than in any other period in our nation's
history. Since 1980, there have been more court cases
involving religious liberty than the total number during
the previous 190 years! The preservation of our rights
guaranteed under the Constitution of the United States
must be upheld at any and all cost.
Let us not be intimidated in the face of accelerated
public misunderstanding of" authentic" religious behav-
110
ior by implications of fanaticism. An old church publica-
tion reports an incident of an officer complaining to Gen-
eral Stonewall J that some soldiers were making
noise in their tent. "::!N"hat are they doing?" asked the
General. "They are now, but they have been
singing" was the "And is that a crime?" the General
demanded. "The of war orders punishment for an
unusual noise" the answer. "God forbid that pray-
ing should be an unusual noise in the camp" replied
General Jackson.
Revival is atypical and not the accepted norm in any
time period. G. Campbell Morgan heard this statement
made: "The preacher must catch the spirit of the age." He
gave the following answer: "God forgive him if he does.
The preacher's business is to correct the spirit of the age!"
Neither the Church in the Book of Acts nor the church of
Philadelphia in Revelation were popular with the status
quo. "Where there's smoke, there's fire" -Christians on
fire for God! The only way to ascertain if a ministry is of
God is to search the Scriptures to test their doctrine, and
to personally inspect the fruit of their lives.
Hearsay and popular reports of wrongdoing charac-
terize a post-Christian era that has forgotten the Christ of
the Bible who said: "Woe unto you when all men shall
speak well of you! for so did their fathers of the false
prophets ... Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and
persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you
falsely, for My sake. Rejoice and be exceeding glad!"
(Luke 6:26; Matt. 5:11-12).
111
God Give Us Men
God give us men. A time like this demands
Strong minds, great hearts, true faith and
willing hands;
Men whom the lust of office does not kill;
Men whom the spoils of office cannot buy;
Men who possess opinions and a will;
Men who have honor; men who will not lie;
Men who can stand before a demagogue
And damn his treacherous flatteries without
winking;
Tall men, sun-crowned, who live above the fog
In public duty and in private thinking!
For while the rabble with their thumb-worn
creeds,
Their large professions and their little deeds
Mingle in selfish strife; lo! Freedom weeps!
Wrong rules the land, and waiting Justice sleeps!
-J. G. Holland
112
NINE
THE SPIRIT OF
THE CHURCH
When the Apostle Paul told the Corinthians to ex-
amine their faith, he was writing to a church who had
been cross-examining him! They were split into factions
because they would not agree on whom to follow. The
most arrogant party among them was the group for
whom no human leader was good enough. They claimed
God, alone, was their teacher.
Congregations have a way of putting all the blame
on the pastor. Recent failures in church leadership which
have been widely publicized have added to the board
members' zeal to carve the splinter out of the preacher's
eye! R. Eugene Puckett, editor-in-chief of a North Caro-
lina Baptist newspaper, comments "We've been infil-
trated with secular values in the' church. In the secular
world, a man produces or you chop off his head." It is
common practice in churches across the country to termi-
113
nate ministers after only five years of service. In addition,
in some denominations a regular practice is to recycle
pastors every two years.
How very different our churches would be if they
worked together as an organism under Christ's headship.
Dr. J. Wilbur Chapman in his first pastorate was visited
by a layman who frankly told him, "You are not a strong
preacher. In the usual order of things you will fail here,
but a little group of laymen have agreed to gather every
Sunday morning and pray for you." The small group
grew to a thousand as God blessed their Psalm 133 spirit.
1
Failure turns to success with support and encourage-
ment; but when even one member is missing from active
duty, the strength of the whole church is weakened.
As Lutzer says, "We are soldiers in the same army,
members of the same family, and stones in the same
building."
2
If the foot shall say, Because I am not the hand
I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the
body? (1 Cor. 12:15).
The one with the stuttering tongue and the foggy
past could be the Moses of our generation. This is not the
time to conduct uniform inspections, but to be marching
together under orders. William Booth recruited ex-con-
victs and women to the work because the elders of his
denomination were too busy with their internal affairs to
beabouttheirFather'sbusiness. Boothandhisarmywent
into the streets and got the job done!
Edith Schaeffer says, "If it were up to the devil-he
would subtract every one of God's people from history,
and would divide all of God's people from each other,
setting them at each other's throats, with hate erasing
114
The Spirit of the Church
love, and occupation with lesser battles diverting their
attention from the m;jjor battle of God against Satan!"
3
The church needs not wrecking crews!
Abraham s heart's desire was a minimum of
hate as the end of Civil War came into sight and the
awesome tasks and reconciliation
loomed. When a Massachusetts Senator approached him
concerning Jefferson Davis, saying "Do not allow him to
escape the law. He must be hanged!" Lincoln calmly
replied,"Judgenotthatye be not judged." The conviction
that took him into the war gave him the right attitude
following it: A house divided against itself cannot stand.
The spiritual war is over. We have been reconciled to
God and to each other by the shedding of Blood. Now
there is a mystical union between Christ and His Church.
"He that is joined to the Lord is one Spirit" (1 Cor. 6:17).
We are members of His body, His flesh and His bones. We
do not attack God's people when they are down because
Christ died to lift them up. We do not malign a child of
God because he is God's child. The One he is joined to will
take care of him.
Christianity has let down its breastplate, which is
Christ's righteousness. While human integrity is crying
for men to pay penance in order to make things right,
divine integrity proclaims that Jesus already made it
right. By cross-examining our own, we are contradicting
the very message we have been commissioned to bring
the world. "All have sinned, and fallen short of the glory
of God" (Rom. 3:23). The wages of sin is death but the gift
of God gives us what we do not qeserve-a full pardon
and the imputation of Christ's own righteousness. "For
He hath made Him to be sin for us, Who knew no sin; that
we might be made the righteousness of God in Him" (2
115
Cor. 5:21). All those who receive the" abundance of grace
and the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one,
Jesus Christ" (Rom. 5:17).
As we hold out this gift to the world, are we living by
it ourselves? When we leave the position of victory in
Christ which God has given us, we have no other stand.
We are defeated the moment we step down from Christ's
work on the cross to compare our works in relative
righteousness.
"To him that worketh not, but believeth on him that
justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteous-
ness" (Rom. 4:5). The moment we stop deriving all our
righteousness from the Son, we are unrighteous in our
thinking. What is the work of God which He expects from
us?
11
This is the work of God, that ye believe on Him
whom He hath sent" (John 6:29). We commit the deepest
sin of all against God when we disannul Christ's fulfill-
ment of righteousness by demanding human payment.
The Sins of the Church
The top seven sins listed in Proverbs 6:16-19 all have
their origin in pride. The first listed is
11
a proud look."
Pride lifts the Christian above his brethren while humility
would esteem a brother better than oneself. "Hereby
perceive we the love of God because He laid down His life
for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the
brethren."
The second sm is II a lying tongue." The apostle Paul
said,
11
Let God be true and every man a liar" in reference
to those who received the oracles of God but did not
believe them. The Pharisees kept the Law but when the
Perfection of the Law came in the form of Jesus Christ,
they would not believe. "But, when that which is perfect
116
is come, then that which is in part shall be done away"
says the great love chapter, 1 Corinthians 13. Christ is
THE truth and every partial truth which falls short of the
totality of Christ is a lie. To expose the sins of others is to
lie against the One who bore those sins on His own body
in order to put them behind His back. Hundreds and
hundreds of Christians live in unresolved problems be-
cause they lie against the truth that in Christ the sin issue
is settled and that in Him we are free.
The third sin that God hates is uhands that shed
innocent blood." The devil, according to Jesus, was a
murderer from the beginning. He assassinated God's
character before the angels and murdered man's spirit by
his false representation of Him in Eden's garden. The first
human murder was committed in reaction to the gift of
grace and the imputation of righteousness without works.
If we do not accept what Christ's blood has done, we will
want to shed human blood in one way or another.
The fourth sin is
11
an heart that deviseth wicked
imaginations." Negative planning based on false infor-
mation leads to the fifth sin,
11
feet that be swift in running
to mischief." How many phone calls, gossip sessions, and
board meetings have been held with the motive to de-
stroy!
The sixth sin is being
11
a false witness." Testimonies
which deny the truth of Calvary lead to the final sin,
"sowing discord among the brethren." All breakdowns
in the church start with exalting self and self's evaluations
above the cross and Christ's verdict of "It is finished."
"These six things doth the Lord hate: yea, seven are an
abomination unto Him."
117
What Is Our Message?
Have we lost our spiritual focal point? The right
message will give the Church the right spirit and we will
forgive one another as Christ has forgiven us. The height
of deception is to profess to represent Christ but then
preach personal righteousness. "Not having mine own
righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is
through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of
God by faith" (Phil. 3:9). Those who try to enter God's
presence on the basis of their many wonderful works will
find they cannot get in. Faith in Christ's blood alone
impresses God. He wants the privilege of showing off the
exceeding riches of His grace demonstrated by His kind-
ness in sending Christ to pay it all. When we finally
surrender the worthlessness of our own righteousness,
which continually seeks to compete with His, our ener-
gies will be put to better use. How many names in the
phone book have never been prayed over because we
have been more concerned with promoting ourselves
instead of propagating the Gospel?
The Pharisees added 2,000 rules to the Ten Com-
mandments and still could not enter into heaven! We are
either dead in Christ through the reckoning of faith or we
are dead to Christ by living according to externals, whether
legalistic or lascivious. Unless the Spirit of God is reign-
ing through our faith, the Church lives in carnality.
Christianity is not a quantity of rules, but a quality of life.
If we walk in the newness of the Spirit of life, we will not
fulfill the lusts of the flesh. His is a Holy Spirit that does
not have to be regulated by human effort but is received
in response to divine goodness. Listen to the prayer of a
spiritual five-star general for the Church:
118
And this I pray, that your love may abound yet
more and more in knowledge and in all judg-
ment, that ye may approve things that are
excellent; that ye may be sincere and without
offense till the day of Christ; Being filled with
the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus
Christ, unto the glory and praise of God (Phil.
1:9-11).
The Church is to seek every opportunity to love with
a cup running over, having a river oflife flowing perpetu-
ally, intensely, and progressively from within through
the accurate knowledge of truth. We are to perfect a
capacity to express ourselves through Christ, alone.
Things that are "excellent" refer to that which has
eternal weight. "Sincere" means free from the falsehoods
of man's understanding so that we are without offense,
never preventing someone from knowing the true nature
of God. God's love is based on imputed righteousness.
We bear the fruit of it when we love according to our
standing in Him, not in response to the state of man.
God's love has no "buts" to it. If our love can dimin-
ish, then it was never really God's love. Love has no need
of a scapegoat because it has Calvary. There is peace in
that fellowship and joy in that Presence. The Church is to
take in the love of Christ and to breathe it out. Without
this love, we have no proof we are of Him. "We know that
we have passed from death unto life, because we love the
brethren. He that loveth not his, brother abideth in death"
(1 John 3:14).
Just as Adam and Eve had a choice whether to obey
God by partaking of the tree of Life, or to disobey by
partaking of the tree of knowledge without Life, we also
have that choice. The false ministers who troubled the
119
Galatian church had another gospel because they preached
from the wrong tree. Christ did not come to judge but to
give life. We are not commissioned to know anything
about anyone's flesh, but to love with a love that goes
beyond knowledge. The authority of the Church is to
dispense forgiveness through the grace of God!
Down in the human heart crushed by the
tempter,
Feelings lie buried that grace can restore.
Touched by a loving heart, wakened by
kindness,
Chords that are broken will vibrate once more.
-Fanny J. Crosby
The Spirit of Gathering
Gathering is the only ministry sanctioned by Christ.
"He that gathereth not with Me, scattereth abroad" (Matt.
12:30). To gather means to bring together, to reconcile, to
assemble. To practice anything else is to scatter and to
disperse, like throwing seed to the wind. Our ministry is
to build up and to gather believers around faith in Christ.
The essence of grace is its freedom of conditions. The
apostle Paul was so saturated by this grace that he desired
to dispense it without receiving any financial recom-
pense. True purity comes from being rightly related to the
pure grace of God. Only the grace of God accomplishes a
work in the human soul.
When we evaluate people, we send them away
guilty. When we edify them, we gather them into a new
identity in Christ. During His three years of public min-
istry, Jesus consistently gathered, always covering and
redeeming what had been lost. At high noon when no one
120
else was around to hear her sin confessed, He gathered
the woman at the well. Under the cover of night he met
with Nicodemus to gather under His wing this religious
man who did not want the other Pharisees to know his
inner need. Jesus waited until all those who condemned
the woman taken in adultery had gone before He ad-
dressed her. And then He said, "Neither do I condemn
thee: go, and sin no more" (John 8:9-11). He, alone, had a
right to condemn her but He would not. Instead, He
gathered her into the kingdom of God.
Since there are none among us who can claim perfect
sinlessness, our only ministry can be that of reconcili-
ation. We have no right to engage in a ministry of accusa-
tion, condemnation, or judgment. Any who participate in
a negative ministry do not gather but scatter, elevating
the opinions of self above the Word of God and the Son of
God. We have the right to discern scripturally in order to
restore and discipline as a local church, but never to
gossip, malign, or assassinate another Christian's charac-
ter. WhenJamesandJohn, the sons of thunder, wanted to
call down fire from heaven to see "justice" done, Jesus
rebuked them. "Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are
of. For the Son of man is not come to destroy men's lives
but to save them" (Luke 9:55,56). This is the gospel of
grace. Anything else is another spirit, another gospel, and
another Jesus.
The Royal Law
Christ's last visit on earth was to crooked Zacheus'
house; His last trip was through Jericho to heal blind
Bartimeus; His last words were "This day thou shalt be
with Me in Paradise" to the thief hanging by His side. This
is the real Jesus, the friend of sinners and Redeemer of the
121
human race. Some of the greatest men in the Bible were
used mightily after they had failed miserably. God does
not promote because of sin, but in spite of it. David wrote
his greatest psalms after his greatest sins. Jonah, after
rebelling and failing God, had one of the greatest revivals
in human history. Peter, fifty days after denying Christ
with curses, was used to win thousands as the great
preacher of Pentecost. God does not bless sin, but His
blood purges completely so He is able to abundantly bless
where sin once reigned.
Moses was the forgiven murderer, David the for-
given adulterer, Jacob the forgiven deceiver, Jonah ...
Peter ... Paul... forgiven! This is the saving life which we
have been called to represent. God is the Father who
treats His prodigal sons as honored guests. No recitation
of their failure, no public confession demanded, no pro-
bation period required. In John, chapter four, the woman
who had five husbands and was living in open adultery
won a city to Christ. You see, the power of love does more
to destroy the power of sin than judging ever could do!
Jesus used the parable of the lost coin, the lost lamb,
and the lost son to depict His heart toward the over-
looked, the wandering, and the rebellious. May the Church
bear His nature along with His name! "God is love" (1
John 4:16). The Pharisees made a god after their own
religious imaginations. Every religious system rejects its
own authors because not even they can live up to its stan-
dards. Christ came for the frail and undeserving. He
promotes those who keep a grace perspective. He uses
the weak to surprise the strong. Behold the Lamb! The
Church is to have the Lamb's Spirit and walk in His royal
law of love which fulfills every other law.
"Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." This is the
122
majestic law, expressing the highest characteristic pos-
sible of human life. It is not a law like others which lays
down specific guidelines, but is a principle of living that
is motivated by Calvary's grace. As one preacher put it,
the royal law of love asks the question "To whom can I be
a neighbor?", rather than "Who is my neighbor?" The
lawyer inside the natural mind is always justifying self on
the basis of external parameters, but the royal law of love
cannot be lived up to. It must be shed abroad in the heart
by the Holy Spirit. When we live in the flow of this love,
we operate in our royal identity according to God's in-
tended design who "hath made us kings and priests."
Instead of being slaves to petty grudges, critical opinions,
jealous thoughts, and selfish motives, we reign with Him.
God's love forgives and forgets the moment of becoming
conscious of being sinned against.
Y e have heard that it hath been said, Thou
shalt love thy neighbor, and hate thine enemy.
But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless
them that curse you, do good to them that hate
you, and pray for them which despitefully use
you, and persecute you; that ye may be the
children of your Father which is in heaven: for
He maketh His sun to rise on the evil and on the
good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the
unjust. For if ye love them which love you,
what reward have ye? do not even the publi-
cans the same? And if ye salute your brethren
only,what do ye more than others? do not even
the publicans so? Be ye therefore perfect, even
as your Father which is in heaven is perfect
(Matt. 5:43-48).
123
Even when love is grieved, it never changes. Love
controls the thoughts, tongue, and behavior when the
Lamb is allowed His throne. Worthy is the Lamb and
outside of Him, none are worthy. Through the reckoning
of the Cross, we receive His Spirit so that we can conquer
through love. If Christ is truly our Master, we will wash
each other's feet with forgiveness, reconciliation, and
restoration. There is no reason to expose others here on
earth. It serves no redemptive purpose to make judg-
ments before the world. Everything will be tried at the
appointed time at the Bema Seat Judgment of Christ.
Until then, let us live by faith, redeeming the time while
resting in love. Now is the time to put everything else
aside and preach Christ!
Forget It
If you see a tall fellow ahead of the crowd,
A leader of music, marching fearless and proud,
And you know of a tale whose mere telling
aloud
Would cause his proud head to in anguish be
bowed,
It's a pretty good plan to forget it.
If you know of a skeleton hidden away
In a closet, and guarded and kept from the day
In the dark; whose showing, whose sudden
display
Would cause grief and sorrow and lifelong
dismay
124
If you know of a spot in the life of a friend
(yV e all have spots concealed, world without
end)
Whose touching his heartstrings would play or
rend,
Till the shame of its showing no grieving could
mend,
If you know of a thing that will darken the joy
Of a man or a woman, a girl or boy,
That will wipe out a smile or the least way
annoy
A fellow, or cause any gladness to cloy
-Anonymous
Full Restoration
Divine love bears all things, believes all things,
hopes all things, and endures all things (1 Cor. 13:7). As
Christians filled with the love of God, we must take the
position that no believer purposefully fails. We all have
sinned. IJ'If we say that we have no sin, we deceive
ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins,
He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse
us from all unrighteousness" (John 1:8,9). If God should
mark iniquity, who could stand? David rejoiced that
God's forgiveness washed away his sin and restored him
fully before God and men: "Blessed is he whose trans-
gression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the
man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity" (Ps.
32:1-2). Before David confessed his sin, he was under the
heavy conviction of the Holy Spirit. But when David
125
acknowledged his sin instead of hiding it, God's mercy
was quick to bury it in the sea of His forgetfulness.
Come now, and let us reason together, saith the
Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall
be as white as snow; though they be red like
crimson, they shall be as wool (Isa. 1:18).
Paul urged the congregation to forgive and comfort
the man who had repented of his affair with his step-
mother. They were to receive him back into fellowship
immediately "lest somehow such a one be overwhelmed
by excessive sorrow" (2 Cor. 2:7;NASB). The prodigal's
father instantly restored his son to his former position
and sense of self-worth. A kiss, not punishment, awaits
the return of the backslider. Our own sins punish us in the
sowing and reaping process, but God forgives and cov-
ers. He is not dealing with sins but with individuals who
need to know their personal significance in His plan.
Christ was both High Priest and sacrifice. He called
Mary by name before ascending to "My Father and your
Father." Now, His blood on the mercy seat in the Holy of
Holies makes God" Our Father" even in our darkest hour
of sin and shame.
Thou that hast slept in error's sleep
Oh, wouldst thou wake in Heaven,
Like Mary kneel, like Mary weep,
,..Love much," and be forgiven?
-Thomas Moore
The love of God has removed the sin from the sinner.
"As far as the east is from the west, so far hath He
removed our transgressions from us"! (Ps. 103:12). Though
126
we fall, we are not utterly cast down because of being
upheld by the nail-scarred hands.
Even if the fallen believer is never restored on earth,
his salvation is upheld in heaven. Saul, the first monarch
of Israel, came under the influence of darkness and never
recovered. But David attests to his salvation by saying
"Saul and Jonathan were lovely and pleasant in their
lives, and in their death they were not divided" (2 Sam.
1:23). David called him anointed even when he was not
manifesting his anointing. Saul went to Paradise with his
son, just as Samuel who rose from the Paradise side of
Hades had prophesied: ~ ~ t o m o r r o w shalt thou and thy
sons be with me." To say that Saul went to a place of
torment to pay for his sins wopld be to say that Samuel
and Jonathan went there, too.
David, on the other hand, repented of his adultery
and act of murder so he was fully restored. Although his
sin greatly affected others, he said u Against Thee, Thee
only, have I sinned, and done this evil in Thy sight" (Ps.
51:4). The prophet Nathan was used to confront David
because his sin was affecting the entire kingdom but
David's repentance was before God, alone. He was not
subjected to any official investigation or board of inquiry.
He was not even put on probation. The sin which was
exposed in private was confessed in private and God,
alone, did the chastising. The baby born of his adulterous
union with Bathsheba died but so complete was God's
forgiveness that He chose the second child born of their
love, Solomon, to reign as the next king. Hundreds of
years later, God, Himself, was not ashamed to be associ-
ated with the name of the one who had failed but who had
forsaken his sin, as Matthew opens his gospel with "Jesus
Christ, the son of David."
127
Restoration of a Leader
I respect the marvelous men of God who disagree
with my views on this subject. I highly honor their convic-
tions and their fruit and I love them very much. However,
nowhere in the New Testament does it say that a leader
cannot be restored to his full rights of office if he has
confessed and forsaken his sin. APOK.ATASTASIS is the
Greek word for restoration, which means to set back in
order according to original position. A pastor should be
blameless in his lifestyle but he cannot be perfect because
his adamic nature has not been eradicated. In Philippians
3:12,Paulsaid
11
neitheramialreadyperfect" -itwasthen
already quite late in his ministry. A leader has greater re-
sponsibility before God. The correction he receives on
earth from God will be more rigorous than a member of
the congregation who sins, and he will be more account-
able at the judgment seat of Christ. A leader should
submit to the organizational policy of the denomination
which he embraces, but should also be fully restored
according to the Scriptures. There is a higher standard of
discipline for a pastor if he fails, but his restoration is not
anything less than complete once he has repented. All the
rights and privileges of his office, including preaching,
are his to exercise because they were given to him through
the unconditional gift and unchanging calling of Christ.
Abraham was not disqualified as the father of our
faith when he produced Ishmael through Hagar. He was
chastised and then restored to become the father of Isaac.
God was not any less holy back then! Solomon sinned
profusely after becoming king. But in his old age he ~ s
used to write two inspired books of Scripture. God d1d
not relegate him to a secondary work but allowed him to
continue in his original calling as His spokesman. Taking
128
the position that a pastor cannot be fully restored after
repenting from sin puts limits on the finished work of
Christ, God's ability and desire to forgive, the meaning
and purpose of restoration, the efficacy of Christ's priest-
hood, and does despite to the Spirit of Grace. Above all,
it is not according to God's Word. As a leader in Romans
7:19, Paul said that he did evil. In Luke 5:6-8, Peter said, HI
have sinned." Later, after denying the Lord, He was
restored to his full position of leadership.
According to Matthew 5:28, mental sins are just as
serious as overt ones. Should every pastor who thinks a
lustful thought step down from the pulpit? If that were
the case, who would be left to preach? James 2:10-13 says
that to offend one point of the a w is to offend it all. The
same Law which says "thou shalt not commit adultery"
also says u thou shalt not covet." There are no "special"
sins which require special chastisement. How can we
extend unconditional forgiveness of sins to the world, but
withhold it from our own? If Christ died to forgive the
unsaved sinner, He will not do less for His own sons.
He that spared not His own Son, but delivered
Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him
also freely give us all things? Who shall lay
anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God
that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It is
Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again,
who is even at the right hand of God, who also
maketh intercession for us (Rom. 8:31-34).
Let us not muzzle a preacher of the good news from
partaking of his own message. He needs the grace of God,
too!
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The Attitude of the Onlooker
Don't sneer at the man who is down today,
Unless you have felt the blow
That caused his fall, or felt the shame
That only the fallen know.
-Anonymous
Job's friends were ready to trample him when he
was down. Little did they realize that they were being
tested as surely as he was! While the sins of the Mary
Magdelenes and Zaccheus' of our day make headlines,
God is quietly taking notes on the hearts of those who
judge. God does not impute the cause of sin, the actual sin,
or its effects once a sin has been confessed and forsaken.
Those who require more than God does are not walking
in the Light, themselves. The same Light that requires a
fallen Christian to repent, requires his brothers to restore
him and not tell others. Love covers the multitude of sins.
The prodigal son's older brother was disturbed when his
father threw a party for the repentant sibling. He wanted
his brother to suffer more than he had already suffered.
The elder brother spirit in the Father's house must go!
In certain circles and organizations, a pastor who
sins is subjected to proceedings that come close to violat-
ing constitutional principles. These legalists should con-
sider a ban on portions of Scripture such as the Psalms,
Ecclesiastes and Song of Solomon which were written
after periods of backsliding. If Abraham or Jacob were.
alive today, they would say: "Abraham disqualified
himself. I'm afraid he can't be considered for the job," or
"Jacob? I can't respect him. He was a cheat!" Though they
say they forgive, they never forget when someone fails.
This interpretation of restoration is partial and condi-
130
tiona!, clearly violating the very foundation of the new
covenant. In her little book" If", Amy Carmichael zeros in
on Christian hypocrisy. She writes:
If I cast up a confessed, repented, and forsaken
sin against another, and allow my remembrance
of that sin to color my thinking and feed my
suspicions, then I know nothing of Calvary
love.
And again,
If I say, Yes, I forgive, but I cannot forget, as
though the God, who twice a day washes all the
sands on all the shores of all the world, could
not wash such memories from my mind, then I
know nothing of Calvary love.
No License For Sin
All God's children should hate sin. One brief look
from the Lord caused backslidden Peter to weep bitter
tears. The Apostle probably never forgot that look. Every
time we sin, we hurt Christ and our own souls. Living in
sin is not fun and games. God is in control of the situation,
no matter how things appear. The Christian who d0es not
repent loses the joy and privileges of daily fellowship
with the Lord. He comes under the discipline of his
Heavenly Father whose chastening is progressive, and
grows in intensity for as long as he refuses to repent.
David wrote in Psalm 118:18, "The Lord hath chastened
me sore: but he hath not given me over unto death."
Apparently, the chastening was so intense that David
literally feared for his life. The year that David waited
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before confessing his sin with Bathsheba was not an
enjoyable one for the King of Israel. . . .
The Lord does not discipline in anger. He disc1plmes
in mercy and love because He desires with
believer. His purpose is always restoration and reconcili-
ation. In all of His dealings with us, He has our best
interests in mind. He wants us to be happy, productive
and mature, progressively becoming conformed to the
image of His Son.
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TEN
BEAUTY FOR ASHES
To comfort all who mourn, ... Giving them a
garland instead of ashes, the oil of gladness
instead of mourning, the mantle of praise in-
stead of a spirit of fainting. So they will be
called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the
Lord, that He might be glorified (Isa. 61:2,3;
NASB).
This was Christ's mission. His sacrifice turned our
sins into ashes which leave no evidence of what has been
burned. All that may be discerned from ashes is that there
was an offering made, accepted, and utterly consumed.
An untold number of beautiful success stories have
risen out of the ashes. I received a moving letter from a
pastor who listens to my radio program. Many years ago,
he committed adultery with a woman in his congrega-
tion. She was the first to repent and then begged him to
repent as well, which he did. His church is now prosper-
ing because this woman saved the day by handling the sin
133
divine-style. Instead of setting herself up as the #victim"
who decides to tell all in a fit of" truth," she confessed her
sin only to God and to the person involved. The illicit re-
lationship was totally cut off but she stayed in the
and continues to serve to this day under the pastor s wife
who does not know what had happened. This is the
integrity spoken of in Proverbs 17:9:
He that covereth a transgression seeketh love:
But he that repeateth a matter separateth very
friends.
While some in the Church are in the detecting busi-
ness, God is in the protecting business! "It is the glory of
God to conceal a thing: but the honor of kings is to search
out a matter" (Prov. 25:2). This woman had the spirit of a
Deborah and saved the situation under Christ's head-
ship. Love always does that which would save,
and influence for good. Knowledge puffs up one s sense
of self-importance, but love edifies everyone concerned.
That woman saved the pastor's marriage, family, pastor-
ate, and church, as well as his unrealized potential. How
much better than what has been happening wholesale
these days as men's sins are being broadcast over the
network so that those involved have no future.
One young couple had only been married two and a
half years when the husband committed adultery. He
repented and returned to the Lord very shortly after, but
the woman with whom he had relations had already
conceived. She confronted his wife with the story. In
tears, the hurting wife sought God's mind. The other
woman did not want the child, so the wife decided to take
the child as her own. Years have passed and no one knows
that the child is not hers. She and her husband have kept
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Beauty for Ashes
the secret between themselves. The wife never once
brought it up to use it as an accusation against him in
difficult times. The husband has thanked her thousands
of times over through his heartfelt love and appreciation.
Their marriage is a trophy of grace built on the foundation
of forgiveness. The valley of weeping became a door of
hope because the God of all grace turned the curse into a
blessing.
In the early days of my first pastorate, two people in
my ministry became involved with each other. No one
around them knew of the affair. One morning while I was
doing a radio broadcast, the Spirit of God revealed it to
me. The tears flowed down my cheeks. We had to put a
taped message on because my heart was breaking and I
could not continue the broadcast. I had them both come
into my office where they confessed to the affair. The
woman, especially, was very broken and desirous of
letting Christ be her complete victory. During the ensu-
ing days as she sought the Lord for spiritual restoration,
God gave me a song to encourage her heart:
He woke me in the morning, I thought of His
love,
He opened my ear with His heavenly dove.
The sunrise was splendor, the sky was so blue,
Fresh dew on the grass, white douds pure and
true.
God gave me a new day, tears came from my
eyes,
I can go on now with no grief or sighs,
Thank you, my Father, I'm refreshed in my
soul,
My precious Lord Jesus has made me whole.
135
Even me, even me, He has made me whole,
Jesus, my Lord had transformed my soul.
Oh, what a difference this Saviour in me,
Christ Jesus, my Lord, has set me free!
Unfortunately, this story does not have a happy
ending. She told her husband about the relationship and
he could not forgive her. He put her on trial for the next
year of their marriage, not even wanting to kiss her. H_is
coldness and accusations were too much for her to bear m
her already broken state. She went back to the arms of the
other man and her marriage ended in divorce. Her hus-
band reinforced her poor self-image and guilt until she
gave up on herself. But, though her heart condemned her,
God's love was greater than her heart. God had forgiven
and forgotten her sin but her husband had not. He failed
the grace of God in his hour of opportunity. ;/The Lord
upholdeth all that fall, and raiseth up all those that be
bowed down" (Ps. 145:14). As members of a fallen race,
this is the kind of love we need in order to make it.
Grace upon Grace
God's grace is the only answer for the human condi-
tion. Lewis Sperry Chafer, the great theologian, said that
grace finds its greatest triumph when we are the most
helpless. Grace cannot be less for the worst, or better for
the best because it is not given on the basis of merit or
withdrawn for demerit. Grace is ontological-the quality
of God's own being which pervades all of His attributes.
God was grace before there ever was a creation to receive
its benefits. Sin does not stop grace; only the rejection of
grace by the free will can inhibit it. The Pharisees revered
outward morality, self-righteousness, the distinctions of
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Beauty for Ashes
rank, and even the Scriptures, but they did not love who
God was-GRACE! Christ, Himself, authors and finishes
our faith. Grace gives us a place in the plan of God and
maintains our place in that plan. Like Abraham, like
Jacob, like Moses, like Peter, like Paul we cannot sin our
way out of His plan of grace. Grace will not accept the
excuses of our demerits. "Whither shall I flee from Thy
Presence? If I ascend up into heaven, Thou art there: if I
make my bed in hell, behold Thou art there" (Ps. 139:7 -8).
The soul that realizes it cannot flee from God's love
ultimately submits to it!
"I am persuaded," Paul said. The Spirit finally con-
vinced him that nothing could separate him from God's
love. Knowing this quality of grace so satisfies the heart
that it does not want to sin or be separated from its
fellowship. When grace is on the throne, we are moti-
vated to pray, to love, and to bring others to Christ. The
only possible premise for human existence is grace.
Common grace provides us with health, home, and
happiness. Calvary's grace gives us heaven. Greater grace
makes us progressively more like Jesus right here in time.
Grace takes man from the cradle to the grave, perfecting
him in love.
For whom He did foreknow, He also did pre-
destinate to be conformed to the image of His
Son, that He might be the first born among
" many brethren. Moreover whom He did pre-
destinate, them He also called: and whom He
called, them He also justified: and whom He
justified, them He also glorified (Rom. 8:29-30).
God is waiting to be gracious. We have not begun to
tap His inexhaustible supply. Those who know this kind
137
of a God are able to do great exploits, but those who think
they serve a hard Taskmaster bury their talents and never
use them. A. W. Tozer noted that the God we worship is
the foundation of the whole building. Every heresy can be
traced back to some imperfect thought about God. Our
God is the One who will not break the bruised reed or
quench the smoking flax. The flickering light will not be
put out. Those who are broken will become instruments
of righteousness in His hands. As we grow in knowing
what God is like, His nature is worked in so that we
become patient, longsuffering, hoping and loving to the
end as He does. Moses cried out to this God, I may
know Thee!", and again, "Show me Thy glory!" Paul,
having served Christ many years, had one burning de-
sire: #That I may know Him!"
Deeper dimensions of fellowship await those who
do not manufacture a manageable god on their own
terms, but seek to really know the God of all grace. We
look to Jesus, knowing that to see Him and His compas-
sion is to see the Father. "For God, who commanded the
light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts,
to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in
the face of Jesus Christ" (2 Cor. 4:6). This is what it is all
about-to know the true God and the One whom He has
sent. Gracious promises have been given to draw us into
His Presence. We will not give up on ourselves or others
if we truly know that it is all grace.
Experiencing This Reality
An understanding of the finished work of Christ
cannot be grasped overnight. Hudson Taylor struggled
with Galatians 2:20 and Romans 6:6 for fifteen years.
Intellectually, he comprehended co-crucifixion and his
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Beauty for Ashes
new identity, but not until the Spirit of God made it alive
to his soul did he have the faith to experience it. Watch-
man Nee pondered Colossians 3:3 for ten years before the
Spirit imparted its meaning to his spirit. The eternal being
inside of every true Christian is not who we were in
childhood, adolescence or even adulthood. The real"I" is
in Christ, in the incorruptible seed received at the mo-
ment of the new birth. The Spirit cries out" Come hither!"
He is calling us to come up to an ascended viewpoint
where we can see spiritual reality.
Calvary is a real place offering a real end and a real
beginning. Sixty-two percent of men and women re-
leased from prison end up back there. How we love our
prisons! Abraham was called out of Ur to adventure with
God into a new land. Christ stands at the door and
knocks. He says to the prisoner locked behind the walls of
memory and self-consciousness: up, my love, my
fair one, and come away. For, lo, the winter is past, the
rainisoverandgone" (SongofSol.2:10-11). Weseekacity
whose builder and maker is God. Man-made religion is
the system which killed the prophets and crucified the
Saviour. Christ came to destroy, not the Law, but the
system of works which usurps His Personhood of grace
and which elevates ecclesiastical ego while the world
goes to hell. Jesus died outside the camp of the religious
stronghold of His day. "Let us go forth therefore unto
Him without the camp, bearing His reproach" (Heb.
13:13). Outside an external exercise and human priest-
hood, we find the experience of eternal life. "Another
priest arises according to the likeness of Melchizedek,
who has become such not on the basis of a law of physical
requirement, but according to the power of an indestruc-
tible life" (Heb. 7:15,16; NASB).
139
We are like the two disciples on the road to Emmaus.
The crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension had all oc-
curred but they were not alive to finished work reality.
Yes, they had received Christ's teaching but it seemed
useless in their situation. Christ was dead to them. Then,
like Jacob waking out of his sleep and crying, "The Lord
is in this place and I knew it not," their eyes were opened
to see the Living Lord. Immanuel, God with us, is right
here ready to explode our experience with love, forgive-
ness, mercy, power, and grace!
Beyond Time
Jesus said, "'My kingdom is not of this world" Gohn
18:36). The bride in Solomon's song is described as a
garden enclosed, a spring shut up, a fountain sealed.
Sealed by the Holy Spirit, every child of God has an
identity beyond time, beyond experience, hidden in the
nature of God. Underneath are the everlasting arms.
Christ is under the bottom. So when we fall in time, He is
still able to keep us from falling and to present us faultless
before His Presence with exceeding joy. Because all God's
promises ever stand, we stand before Him blameless and
in love. We can never fall out of the Father's hand because
He is greater than all. God looks beyond this world into
the next and asks us to set our sights there, too.
In the midst of his struggle with knowledge and sin,
Paul cried out "0 wretched man that I am! Who shall
deliver me from the body of this death?" But in the next
breath, he cried,
11
I thank God through Jesus Christ!" His
will to do good only exacerbated evil within. When he
found grace in the midst of his inadequacy, he was
released by spiritual life. He realized that mercy was
covering him while he worked out his faith in a process
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Beauty for Ashes
and learned how to let God be God within him. The
process is private and before God, not for the eyes of this
world to see.
When David went on a spiritual vacation and fell
into sin, it not only hurt the Lord, but himself, too. He
became like a wild bull caught in the net of lust and
broken communion. He experienced a year of inner si-
lence and heartache. The little shepherd boy lost his rela-
tionship with God, but only heaven knew. He had gotten
proud as king and had grown lax with inner disciplines.
His sin found him out and the sword came back on his
own household, but he died with the epitaph: "David did
that which was right in the eyes ofthe Lord, and turned
not aside from any thing that He commanded him all the
days of his life." (The clause in 1 Kings 15:5 qualifying
God's unequivocal commendation" save only in the matter
of Uriah" was added later by the translators, not being in
the original.)
David's life was a finished work-enclosed, shut up
and sealed in the mind of God. "Thou art all fair, my love;
there is no spot in thee" (Song of Sol. 4:7). The trials and
valleys David went through led to the formation of the
mature believer who wrote Psalm Twenty-three. He found
his identity not in his ups and downs but in God, Himself.
When he lost everything in the Absalom revolution, he
did not want. Green pastures and still waters character-
ized his spiritual walk in the midst of outward chaos and
strife. It is not who we are or what we do, but who we are
becoming in spiritual reality. Now is not the time that the
sons of God will be made completely manifest to the
natural eye. Who we are is still hid with Christ in God.
141
ANew Name
A name signifies representation. After Jacob wrestled
with the angel, he received a new name. Jacob, the usurper,
became Israel, a prince with God. Rachel originally named
Benjamin "Benoni," meaning" son of my sorrow." Adam
is the name given to us by our first parents, representing
our fallen nature. Benjamin's father changed his name
and so has our Father in heaven! "Put on the new man"
means to take on a new nature. In the early church,
"Christian" was a brand new name given to those who
walked in Christ's way. In the Book of Revelation, a new
name was written on the foreheads of those who followed
the Lamb wherever He went. The Bible is filled with name
changes. Abram became Abraham, Jabez became Jarvis,
Simon became Peter, Saul became Paul, and Joses became
Barnabas through the transformational process of faith.
God's changing power turned a murderer into the meek-
est man of the earth-Moses. Our weakest area can
become the strongest because we have a new name and
are growing in the potential of our new identity .
fore, henceforth know we no man after the flesh" (2 Cor.
5:16). A new name is written down in glory and every
believer can say "It is mine!"
A biography, ideally, is the objective account of a
person's life. Biographies may or may not up the
autobiography of the subject. God has wntten our biog-
raphies in the Bible. Our lives in Christ begin with an
obituary with only a gravestone marking where the old
life met its end in the death and burial of Christ. Now,
every day we are writing an autobiography which should
line up with the biography in God's library. We will be
judged by its accordance with the manifest facts! There is
life after death, and we are living it!
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Beauty for Ashes
The priests of the old covenant offered animal sacri-
fices which were not able to purge the conscience from the
consciousness of sin. The priests could not abide in God's
presence in the Holy of Holies, but served Him from the
middle court. Christians today serve God with secret
guilt and emotional defilement because they do not real-
ize that the veil of the flesh has been rent and they can live
boldly in their seated position with Christ. A new name
means no more consciousness of sin! There is nothing
between us and the Lord. Instead of dwelling on our
problems, we need to believe that they have been re-
solved at the cross. The debt of sin has not just been
crossed out; it has been blotted out leaving no record of
the amount that was wiped away.
Only having a single eye on grace can develop the
human potential. Our goal is not to live up to the de-
mands of the law but to live up to our potential in Christ.
To be all I can be is the issue by using the provision God
has given in Jesus Christ to the fullest. Making compari-
sons defeats the unique purpose of the individual be-
liever. Each is a member in particular. The woman in
Mark 14 did what she could, and her deed was not only
accepted but eternally recorded. The godly mother will
receive as many rewards as the faithful preacher if her
service was unto the Lord in response to His death, burial
and resurrection. In the story of the talents, the one not
rightly related to the Master's love and grace buried what
he had been given. He never did anything with what he
had because he had the wrong concept of the One who
gave it. Our only competition is with our own potential.
As we utilize grace, we grow in our capacity to represent
the Giver.
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Forgive Me, Pm Human
A Ministry of Reconciliation
And above all things have fervent charity among
yourselves: for charity shall cover t h ~ multi-
tude of sins. As every man hath received the
gift, even so minister the same, one to another,
as good stewards of the manifold grace of God
(1 Peter 4:8,10).
Jesus, after washing the dung stains from the dis-
ciples' feet, said," A new commandment I give unto you,
That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also
love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are
My disciples, if ye have love one to another" (John 13:34-
35). No servant had been there to wash their feet in the
upper room. (Peter probably thought it would be a good
job for Andrew to do, who had no leadership gifts!) But it
did not occur to any of them to take on the task them-
selves. How right Jesus was when He said i/Whither I go,
thou canst not follow Me now; but thou shalt follow Me
afterwards." They had no capacity to lay down their lives
for each other because they had not yet been filled with
the Spirit of the Cross-Bearer.
It is the Spirit of the living God who causes a man to
cry: "Oh that my head were waters, and n:ine eyes a
fountain of tears, that I might weep day and rught for the
slain of the daughter of my people!" (Jer. 9:1). Jeremiah,
anointed of the Holy Spirit, preached without compro-
mise, but he also wept. The weeping prophet could not
separate himself from his people's pain. "For the hurt of
the daughter of my people am I hurt." To this one. who so
identified with these hurts did God reveal His heart
toward men: "For I know the thoughts that I think toward
you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to
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Beauty for Ashes
give you an expected end" (Jer. 29:11). Today, men and
women are in need of these healing thoughts. In compas-
sion, we are to u weep with them that weep," washing the
feet that have failed with our tears and the cleansing
message of God's forgiveness.
In the story of the good neighbor, a hated Samaritan
stooped down and had compassion on a man who de-
spised him. In John's Gospel, they called Jesus a Samari-
tan as a term of derision. This rejected Samaritan bent low
to minister to His enemies. "God was in Christ, reconcil-
ing the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses
unto them: and hath committed unto us the word of
reconciliation" (2 Cor. 5:19).
A little eight-year-old girl in New England had been
the victim of a broken home. She moved in with her
grandmother while her parents went their separate ways
living in alcoholism and immorality. The girl attended a
local Sunday school and found comfort in her faith in
Jesus. One day, this little girl was hit by a car and taken to
intensive care. When she came back to consciousness, she
asked for her mom and dad. They both came and sat, one
on each side of the bed, holding her hands. She looked at
her father and said, "Daddy, I love you even though you
drink and get mad at Mommy." Then she lovingly looked
at her mother and said, "Mommy, I'm asking Jesus to put
you and Daddy back together." She lived for another 48
hours and then went to be with Jesus. Her heartbroken
q
parents were reconciled and started to search for an
answer to their grief and terrible sense of failure. Through
their daughter's church they heard the Gospel and whole-
heartedly gave their lives to Christ. Tragic as it was, the
story of this little girl illustrates the great ministry of
reconciliation given to all believers.
145
Forgiveness reconciled Joseph to his brothers, and
reconciled his brothers to God's plan. When Joseph met
with them, he cleared the room of everyone else because
the issue was a family matter. It was not to be broadcast
among the household of Pharaoh and throughout Egypt.
"And Joseph said unto his brethren, Come near to me, I
pray you. And they came near. And he said, I am Joseph
your brother, whom ye sold into Egypt. Now therefore be
not grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that ye sold .m;
hither: for God did send me before you to preserve life
(Gen. 45:3-5).
Jesus Christ, our Joseph whom we delivered up to
death, seeks only to be reconciled to those for whom He
died. One day, His beautiful feet will descend upon the
Mount of Olives to make all things right externally as He
already has internally. Will we hear from Him, "'Well
done, thou good and faithful servant"? Will He thank us
for extending His life and love, seeking nothing in return
but the joy of seeing lives mended and restored? Or,
instead of the gold of pure faith, the silver of redemptive
words, and the precious stones of the Holy Spirit's fruit in
our lives, will we have only the wood, hay and stubble
that comes from tending Adam's small plot? Will we
have welcomed many into the kingdom of God through
the glorious Gospel, or will we have kept many from
entering in by making the demands greater than God,
Himself exacts?
In the last fifty years, Islam has increased 500%,
Hinduism 116%, Buddhism 65%, but Christianity only
47%. Could the reason be that Christ and His love is no
longer the central figure and force undergirding our
message?
The Law says: "Measure up or die!" Jesus Christ
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Beauty for Ashes
measured up and died. He is our righteousness. We do
not have to measure up but we need to be reduced. The
stones in the temple in Jerusalem were said to be hewn
underground until they were five-foot square, signifying
grace on every side. The habitation of God must be built
on the foundation of grace, with Christ as the chief
cornerstone. As lively stones in His house, the members
of the Church are to open their hearts and beat down the
gates of hell with the message of love. We only have a little
time.
We sow in the darkness only;
but the Reaper shall reap in light;
And the day of His perfect glory
shall tell of the deeds of the night.
-Alfred J. Waterhouse
147
My Hope Is Built
My hope is built on nothing less
Than Jesus' blood and righteousness;
I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
But wholly lean on Jesus' name.
His oath, His covenant, His blood
Support me in the whelming flood;
When all around my soul gives way,
He then is all my hope and stay.
When He shall come with trumpet sound,
Oh, may I then in Him be found;
Dressed in His righteousness alone,
Faultless to stand before the throne.
-Words of the hymn written
by Edward Mote
148
References
Chapter 2
1. B. Knight, Knight's Master Book of New Illustra-
twns, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.
2. Lewis Sperry Chafer, Grace, Academic Books, Zonder-
van Publ. House
Chapter4
1. Miles J. Stanford, The Green Letters, Zondervan Publish-
ingCo.
ChapterS
1. Richard Crashaw, Christ's Victory
2. George McDonald, From the poem, The Woman "Who
Came Behind Him In The Crowd
Chapter 6
1. White Willett, Reflections, From The Disciplines
of Life, V. Raymond Edman, Scripture Press Founda-
tion
Chapter 7
1. Montgomery, The Contrite Heart, from Poems For Sun-
shine and Shadow, Good News Broadcasting Assoc.
Chapter 8
1. Walter B. Knight, Knight's Master Book ofNew Illustra-
tions, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.
2. Erwin W. Lutzer,"When A Good Man Falls, Scripture
Press Publ. Inc.
3. David G. Bromley, Introduction to Strange Gods
149
Chapter 9 Ill t
1 Walter B. Knight, Knight's Master Book of New us ra-
. tions, Wm. B. Erdmans Publishing Co. .
2. Erwin W. Lutzer, When A Good Man Falls, Scnpture
Press Publ. Inc.
3. Edith Schaeffer, The Tapestry, Word Books
150
APPENDIX
For your study, the following are Scripture verses used in
the text:
Genesis 3:6
Genesis 12:13,20:2
2Samuel11
Exodus 2:12
Romans 7:18
1 Kings 18:42-45
Psalm 139:4
Exodus 32
2 Corinthians 5:14
Hebrews 11:6
Ephesians 1:4
Ephesians 2:6
1 Corinthians 15:56
2 Peter 1:4
Matthew 9:17
Romans5:21
Hebrews 10:26-29
Hebrews4:3
Hebrews 10:14
/i
Hebrews 10:28-31
1 Corinthians 3:12
Micah 7:5-10
1 Samuel30
Ecclesiastes 4:9-10
Deuteronomy 34:8
Luke 15:11-32
Chapter 1
Genesis 9:21
Genesis 16:2
Luke 22:57-60
Acts 7:58, 9:1
Psalm51:5
Chapter 2
151
Romans 5:18, 11:32
John 15:4
Proverbs 3:7
2 Corinthians 2:14
1 John 1:8
Hebrews2:8
John 14:6
Matthew 7:1-2
Matthew 9:16
Hebrews 10:17-23
Hebrews 12:15
Hebrews 10:29
Hebrews 9:22
Ephesians 5:25
Zechariah 4:6-7
Job 28:3
Romans 5:3-4
Judges 16:19-30
Joshua 1:2
Genesis 4:7
Jonah3:1
John 20:24-27
1 Corinthians 5:6-8 Genesis 50:19
1 Peter 1:18-19
Hebrews 12:24
2 Peter 5:5 John 13:35
Psalm 138:8
Philippians 1:6
John 10:3 John 10:3
Exodus 28:17-30
Isaiah 49:16
Matthew 10:30 Psalm56:8
Revelation 12:11
Romans 10:4, 5:17
Job 16:18 Luke 19:41
John4:32 2 Corinthians 5:20
Chapter 3
1 Peter 4:10
2 Corinthians 12:9
Genesis 3:5
Ephesians 1:6, 2:7
Romans5:8
Chapter 6
Ephesians 1:18-19
Matthew 22:13
1 Corinthians 1:30 Colossians 1:13
Titus 2:11
Psalm 18:35
Romans 1:7 1 Thessalonians 3:12, 5:23
Genesis 3:7
Song of Solomon 2:10
1John3:2 2 Peter 3:18
Mark 14:50
Genesis 48:10-22, 49
John 1:14 Romans 12:2
John21:16
Luke7:44
2 Peter 1:4 1 Corinthians 8:1-3
Genesis22
2Samuel15
Galatians 4:1-9 Hebrews 4:10
2Samuel18
1 Kings 19:8
1 Corinthians 15:10 1 Peter 1a3
1 Kings 20:28
Romans 1:17 2 Corinthians 3:18
Romans 7:3 Hebrews 4:11
Chapter4
1John3:20 Job 23:10, 12
Romans 10:4
Genesis 2:17
Matthew 17:1-20 2 Peter 1:19
Romans 7:15-20
Matthew 23:27
Job5:7 1 Peter 1:3
Matthew 7:1
1 John 1:10
Joshua3:17 Hebrews 2:10
John8:3
Matthew 5:14
2 Corinthians 4:7
Ephesians 6:12
2Samuel12
Genesis38
Chapter 7
Romans 8:14 James4:11
Chapter 5
Hebrews4:2 Romans 10:17
"
Genesis 3:15
Matthew 16:23
Hebrews 4:12 Ephesians 4:11
Luke22
John 19:30
2 Timothy 2:15 Hebrews 12:16-17
1 Peter 3:19
Hebrews 9:12, 24
Acts 26:20 Luke5:8
Ephesians 1:3
Colossians 1:13
2 Corinthians 7:8 Philippians 2:12-13
Hebrews 6:13
Matthew 16:16-19
Hebrews 12:1-2 Luke 19:8
1 Peter 5:8
Galatians 5:1
1 Corinthians 14:27-40 2 Corinthians 10:8
2 Corinthians 5:20
John8:44
2 Timothy 4:2 Genesis 3:16
152
153
1 Corinthians 11:10
2 Corinthians 2:6-8
Acts5
Romans 14:3, 4
1 Corinthians 10:29
Genesis 9:20-27
Acts 9:4
Ephesians 5:16
1 Corinthians 5:11
1 Corinthians 4:1-6
Romans 14:22
2 Samuel1:20
Judges 5:23
Chapter 9
1 Corinthians 9:3,11:28 2 Corinthians 13:5
Matthew 12:25 Ephesians 5:20
Philippians 2:3 1 John 3:16
Romans 3:4 John 8:44
Genesis 4 John 19:30
Matthew 7:22 Ephesians 2:7
Galatians 1:6-8, 5:16 John 12:47
2 Corinthians 5:14-19 1 Corinthians 9:18
John 3, 4 2 Corinthians 11:3-4
Luke 19 Mark 10:46
Luke 15, 23:43 1 Corinthians 1:27
John 1:36 Luke 10:29
Romans 5:5 Revelation 1:6, 5:12
1 Corinthians 4:5 Psalm 130:3
Micah 7:19 John 20:17
Psalm 37:24 1 Samuel 26:9, 28:20
James 3:1 Romans 11:29
1 Peter 4:10 Luke 22:61-62
1 Corinthians 8:1
Hebrews 12:2
Hebrews 4:16
2 Corinthians 5:14
Daniel11:32
Chapter 10
154
Hosea2:15
Romans 8:38
1 John 3:16
Isaiah 30:18
Matthew 25:24-25
Isaiah42:3
Philippians 3:10
Revelation 21:9-10, 3:20
Genesis 28:16
Song of Solomon 4:12
Deuteronomy 33:27
Ephesians 1:4
Colossians 3:1
Isaiah 51:20
Romans 8:19
Genesis 32:28, 35:18
Revelation 14:1-4
Psalm51:9
1 Corinthians 12:27
Genesis45
1 Corinthians 1:30
1 Peter4:10
155
Exodus 3:13, 18
John 14:9, 17:3
Hebrews 11:10
Luke 24:31
Ephesians 1:13
Jude24
John 10:29
Romans 7:25
1John3:2
Colossians 3:3
Ephesians 4:24
Hebrews 9:13-14,10:2,22
Isaiah 43:25,44:22
Matthew 25:24
Matthew 23:13
1 Kings 6:7
The task before us as believers is a great one. This is not
the time to be weak and afraid. Our focus, as the Church,
must be upon our Head, Jesus Christ. His Word needs to be
proclaimed like never before. His hymns and praises need
to be sung as loudly as they ever have sung, if the
sweet sound of His amazing grace is to reach the ears of
those who feel wretched because of their failure and guilt.
Those who have never accepted Christ as Saviour, are
swinging between heaven and hell. Their destinies hinge
upon what we, as Christians, do with what we have
received.
Believers who have fallen have let sin impoverish
them spiritually. Their power has been diminished. We
cannot turn away from these in the Church. The fields are
ripe, ready for harvesting those in need of
reconciliation, and restoration.
Dr. Carl H. Stevens, Jr., head of Greater Grace World
Outreach and "The Grace Hour" radio broadcast, makes
God's grace very clear in this "book of the hour." He says:
"Apart from our position in Christ and His Word in us, we
can only respond to situations according to what we are,
which is dust. However, we can serve Christ with confi-
dence and power, knowing that there is not a single thing
that can separate us from His love."
ISBN: 0-89221-192-X

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